Study Partners
by GabbyDunk
Summary: Rory and Logan meet at Yale.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Story based on Gilmore Girls show and characters.

Rory walked into her first class on the first Monday of her sophomore year at Yale, grabbed a seat a few rows back and patiently sipped her coffee. She loved the first day of school, and all the fresh starts that came along with it. New classes, new assignments at the Yale Daily News, new dorm. Well, she mused, she still had Paris as her roommate, and that was far from fresh, having had to navigate the cringe-worthy world of Paris Gellar since high school. They'd both excelled in their freshmen year, choosing to keep their heads down and focus on school and, for Rory, the newspaper. She was doing okay and hoped to stay on the same path.

When a woman Rory assumed was the teacher walked down the steps and headed towards the podium, she tuned in and listened.

"Good morning, I'm Professor Kelly, and this is Journalism 203. It's a new course, as you all know. It was envisioned as more of a free thinking and writing opportunity. The way I see it, so long as you all follow the requirements, which I'm going to cover in a moment, you will have gained another perspective on your writing and will also be happy with your grade. You're our guinea pigs. So here's how this will work - you've been assigned a partner. This person will be your partner for the entire semester. You'll sit together in this class three times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and participate in the dialogue, and you'll meet up on your own - in person - twice a week for two one-hour meetings. During the out-of-class meetings, you'll discuss assigned topics and use prompts to jointly write a single submission. During the class, we'll discuss the submissions. We've built in protections to make sure you're working as partners and following the rules. There will be no other homework for this class and no tests. If we learn you are not following the rules or one of you is shirking your obligations, you'll have lost your easy A. Got it?" Seeing the nods, she continued, "I'm going to cut this short today and hand out the first assignment. You can then go to the list posted at the board in the back. You've been paired alphabetically. Take this time to meet your partner and coordinate your out-of-class meetings. Your first submission is due Wednesday. Good luck everyone."

Rory processed what she just heard. The concept of a partner made her nervous, not because she couldn't work with others, but because she didn't like putting any part of her academic future in someone else's hands. Not everyone was as into school as her, she knew it, she understood it. But it made her nervous. She stood slowly, waiting for the line to die down before walking to the board.

She stared at the board. Gilmore and Huntzberger. And sure enough, she turned to see Logan Huntzberger leaning against a nearby desk, apparently waiting for her. She'd met him at the YDN office last year. He'd written a few articles but was far from a YDN regular. It was odd - Huntzberger meant news - worldwide news. As far as she could tell, though, Logan Huntzberger had little interest in the newspaper. He was friendly enough, but more well known for his...hmmm...social endeavors. If you believed the rumors, he regularly ditched class, he regularly got drunk, and he regularly hooked up with his fellow students - lots and lots of fellow female students. With these thoughts running through her head, she gave him a small smile and re-introduced herself.

He smiled back, "I've seen you at the paper. So, I guess this sounds okay, right? Relatively little input required."

She bit her lip, already not liking what she'd heard. "Um, I guess we should figure out when we can meet each week." She pulled out her schedule and asked if he had his. They compared the two, Rory snapping a picture of his, and found a free hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the out-of-class meetings. They exchanged cell phone numbers and agreed to meet the next day.

Walking back to her dorm, Rory worried about the class. Sure, Logan had readily agreed to the meetings and less willingly agreed to meet at the library. He'd suggested the Pub, with a smirk, making her think maybe he was kidding. But she wasn't sure. They agreed on the library, and agreed to re-evaluate the location in a week or two. In this strange turn of events, she'd be spending an hour a day, every day, with Logan Huntzberger. Lord help her. And help him, if he screwed this up for her.

Rory made it through the rest of her first day without any other surprises. She'd hung out for a little bit that night at the dorm floor party, had a beer, talked to some friends from last year, and met some new people. She listened to Paris lecture (read that as yell at) people, and laughed when Marty told her he hoped to not be the naked guy again this year.

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Logan walked across campus towards the library Tuesday afternoon. Finn and Colin had laughed their asses off when he told them where he was going. Finn, in his third year at Yale, had yet to step into a library, swearing his skin burned around so many books. And Colin only stepped foot in the library when it was time to cram. Logan flicked them off and left them sitting on the couch watching TV and drinking beer. He probably would have been right there with them had his dad not laid down the law at the end of the summer. Apparently now that he was in his junior year, he was expected to put forth some effort into his college education. He was expected to attend class, study, and become more involved in the YDN. He knew all about the expectations that came with being a Huntzberger. He'd lived with them his entire life, and had succeeded in some and failed in a whole lot more. Really though, his meeting with Mitchum had not been that awful. Logan figured he could handle school, and keep his dad off his back, and still have his life.

He thought about his journalism partner Rory. Rory Gilmore. He didn't know much about her, only that she worked on the paper and appeared quiet. She was pretty, kind of in a classic way, longish dark brown hair, bright blue eyes, maybe 5'8, skinny. He knew the Gilmores - Emily and Richard - through his family, and assumed she was somehow related to them. He figured she'd be as good a partner as anyone, and they'd get through the class without issue.

"You're late." He found her sitting at a table in the back, surrounded by textbooks. Okay, so maybe not without issue. He was ten minutes late. Maybe he should add 'slightly uptight' to his list about her. "Yeah, sorry about that."

Luckily, she waved it off, and they got started. Not surprisingly, the assignment turned out to be sort of an ice breaker with questions. Nothing too personal. They talked easily, and he found himself smiling when she rambled on about her favorite movies. They had some common ground.

They got it done, both re-read what they wrote on Rory's laptop, and hit send to submit. They smiled at each other, he mock saluted her, she saluted back, and he said he'd see her in class.

Obligations officially complete for the day, he was ready for a drink.


	2. Chapter 2

They made it through their second class too, with him sliding in next to her just as class was beginning. His hair was soaking wet, he looked exhausted, and he smelled like coconut. "Thanks for joining us," she told him. "And for smelling so ... fruity." She leaned over closer and sniffed him.

He winced and whispered to her she didn't want to know about his night and morning. He was right, she really didn't want to know, but assumed it had something to do with one of those fellow female students. She was just glad he made it in time and they didn't get in trouble. 9:00 am was an early start time for him.

After class, as they were walking out, he told her about Finn hosting a tiki party at their room the night before, Stephanie putting coconut everything everywhere, including in their bathrooms, and Finn deciding at 3:00 am that he needed to find Stacy, in room 303. All good except no building came along with that number and they woke up a lot of pissed off people looking for her.

"Well, did you find her?"

Logan laughed, "Yep, and she wanted nothing to do with him! Crash and burn." He took off, telling her he was going back home to sleep.

Later that afternoon, Rory was happily organizing her desk at the YDN, getting ready to start on her first article of the semester. She loved the activity in the newsroom and looked forward to when the frenetic pace kicked in as they approached print time. She saw Doyle trying to intimidate the new freshman, as he'd done to her last year. She focused on her article and was just finishing up the outline and getting ready to go when she looked up and saw Logan talking to Doyle. Logan towered over Doyle, and looked much better than he had this morning. She found it funny that now Doyle looked to be the one intimidated. The Huntzberger name would do that.

He caught up to her on the way out. "Here to scare Doyle, Logan?" He rolled his eyes, "More like he's scared of pissing off Mitchum Huntzberger. Like I have any influence with my dad." They walked and talked about the articles they'd been assigned. She really liked that one of the articles he got assigned this month was to review a ballet and told him so. He laughed and groaned. While she waited in line at the coffee cart, he told her how his dad insisted he do more at the paper. She nodded. He gave her shit about the readily apparent crush Marty, the coffee cart guy, seemed to have on her, when she introduced them. Logan realized it was the same guy that had worked the bar at some of their parties and told Marty he made a kick-ass margarita. Rory looked at him like he was crazy. Parting ways, she told him, "See you tomorrow. Don't be late again, Huntzberger."

They settled easily into their schedule over the next week and a half, attending class, meeting at the library, and running into each other at the YDN. They worked together without incident and developed a friendship of sorts in the process. Rory liked his stories about the trouble he and his friends got into, mostly stupid things, but she also really liked the story about them sinking a yacht the year before. Rich kids amused her. She told him about Stars Hollow and the many freak inhabitants there. He'd met Paris one day when they'd been standing by the coffee cart and took it in stride when Paris berated him about some thing she'd heard about him. He bowed to her, which only pissed her off more. Now, whenever he saw Paris on campus, he bowed. He started calling Rory Ace when he read her first YDN article about Yale traditions. She was good.

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Two weeks of school successfully completed, Madeline and Louise arrived on their doorstep on Friday afternoon. They were making their annual beginning-of-the-year trek through the east coast schools, looking for the best parties and the hottest guys. They all knew it was one of those cosmic mysteries how the two wild ones and the two more studious ones remained friends all these years, but it worked and they were happy to be together. They shamed Rory and Paris into something other than jeans, and took off for the Pub.

Logan was sitting at a back table at the Pub with his friends. He'd been listening to Stephanie talk about some party the next day when he saw Rory on the dance floor. She was with three other girls, including the lunatic Paris, and was, well, kind of a spastic dancer. She was laughing and shiny, like maybe she'd had a few drinks. She had switched out her normal school clothes for a skirt and boots, and looked cute - way more clothed than any other girl in the bar, but cute. He watched a couple of guys try to get up near her, and he shook his head when she turned away each time. Ace's guy skills might need some work. When she looked up and saw him, he waved her over.

Logan introduced Finn, Colin, and Stephanie to Rory, and then to Paris. When he bowed to her, Finn and Colin turned to him. "We bow to her, Huntz?" And they bowed to her, too, causing Paris to tell them they were pea brain idiots following a bigger idiot, and causing Finn to drunkenly state, "I see why we bow to her." Logan was grinning widely, and Rory was rubbing her forehead. Rory introduced her Chilton friends, who gave the guys the once over. They were all cute, tall, built, and smiling - what's not to like, Rory thought. She saw them focus in on Logan. He sat there in jeans and a button down shirt, blonde hair all messy, brown eyes laughing, and managed to look like something out of a magazine ad. Her friend, the Yale playboy. She talked to Stephanie, liked her a lot, and got her to join them out on the dance floor. When Steph and Rory waved at them for the third time, Colin, Finn, and Logan gave in and danced with them.

They danced and drank for hours. At one point, Rory got Logan to do some ridiculous dance, equally as spastic as her other dances, and now he looked as ridiculous as her. Exhausted and ready to go home, Rory said goodbye to everyone, quickly hugging Logan and her new friends. She and Paris left, leaving the rest of them to party on.

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Logan texted her Sunday morning that they were going to brunch, telling her Steph was in need of female companionship and begged her to come, on Steph's behalf. She went, and she, Finn, and Steph got bottomless mimosas, which they hit hard. After two hours, they were all three a train wreck, leaving Logan and Colin to herd them back to Yale. They took them back to their room, dumped Finn in his room, and poured Steph into Colin's bed and Rory into Logan's bed. Many Xbox games later for Colin and Logan, they heard Steph puking.

With Colin busy helping his girlfriend, Logan checked on Rory and found her still asleep. He grabbed his book and laid down next to her to read until she woke up. He smiled when she gravitated towards him in her sleep, figuring she was seeking out body heat.

She opened one eye, not liking the bright light in the room. Where in the hell was she? Turning her head sideways slowly, she saw Logan next to her reading and assumed she was in his bed. She winced. "Hi, Ace. How do you feel?"

"My head. Holy shit, my head." And then remembering her morning, "Oh my god. The mimosas."

"Yep, the mimosas. You guys were fun. I'm not sure we'll be able to go back there though."

"Oh boy. I don't want to know. Do I want to know?" He laughed. "Do you have Advil?" He nodded, and she followed him out to the kitchen. She downed three pills and a bottle of water, and laid on the couch holding her head. Steph emerged looking rough and laid down on the other end of the couch. "Next time we need to eat more," Steph said. "Next time we need to drink less," Rory said. Within minutes, they were both asleep again.


	3. Chapter 3

Logan rolled into class Monday morning with seconds to spare, looking like shit. His eyes were bloodshot and he wore a baseball hat covering hair more messy than usual. Rory took one look at him and passed him her coffee. He drank, wincing at how strong it was, and drank some more. When he started to doze off, she kicked his foot. She spent the entire hour kicking him and poking him to keep him awake. When class ended, she dragged him across the grass to the coffee cart, which was no easy task since he had at least 5 inches and probably 60 pounds on her. "Alright Sleeping Beauty, what the hell happened to you?" He said something about a bonfire party, and she let it go since it really wasn't any of her business and she had to get to her next class. She got him coffee and told him to go back to his room, leaving him standing there holding the coffee and looking dazed. He took care of her yesterday, and this was the best she could do for him now. She stopped by his room after class, and Colin, who looked strikingly similar to Logan that morning, told her he was sleeping. Satisfied he was good, she went home.

The next day she got a text from Logan.

Logan: Let's meet somewhere besides the library. Too quiet. Pub?

Rory: We're there to do homework, not attend a rave.

Logan: Finn says the library is burning my skin.

Rory: Is Finn sober?

Her phone buzzed with a picture of Finn sitting head down at a table next to what appeared to be a half empty bottle of scotch.

Rory: Oh boy. Okay, but no Pub. Where else?

Logan: You can come here. We can work around Finn.

Rory: That's how I always envisioned my studies at Yale, crammed at a table with a passed out frat boy.

Logan: Finn isn't in a fraternity.

Rory: Funny. Just come here. No drunk people. Barkley 105.

Logan: Barkley 105 has Paris, but okay. See you soon.

They worked around the coffee table in her common room. Logan typed, while Rory looked over his shoulder editing every so often. Finally finished, Logan leaned back on the cushy couch and looked around, "Nice room, Ace. You decorate?" She rolled her eyes and told him this was the work of her grandma, who snuck in while she was gone, just like she did last year, and redecorated. She'd already told him who her grandparents were, and found they shared a commitment to avoid Hartford events as much as possible. He was firmly entrenched into that life, and was jealous that she only had one foot into it.

They jumped when Paris flung open the door and listened intently as she yelled at some poor guy in the hallway. When she turned back around and saw Rory and Logan, she let loose on them, too. "Great, now we've got Huntzberger here. Will his bevy of followers soon be joining us? Ugh." Rory winced when Paris stormed off into her room, and turned to Logan to apologize, only to find him smiling. He enjoyed the Paris show.

"I'm guessing that isn't the typical reaction you get from women."

He shook his head slowly, still smiling.

"They just fall at your feet, right? Beg you to date them. Oh Logan, you're sooooo cute," she mimicked the stereotypical co-ed.

He shook his head again. "I don't date, Ace."

She laughed at that. "I'm sorry. I must be hearing things. I thought Logan Huntzberger just told me he doesn't date. I'm not an idiot, Logan. Your reputation precedes you, even to the dark hallways of the library where I spend most of my time. Lots of girls. Lots and lots of girls."

Amused, he said, "But no girlfriends. I tend to ... have more limited involvement with women."

She snorted, "Is that the polite description for one-night stands?" And then, "I'm not judging, I just don't get it. I'm the exact opposite. I need a certain familiarity with someone before I can even hug them. I'd be so uncomfortable the whole time with a stranger, I wouldn't be able to concentrate."

He put his arm around her shoulder, and said, "You're you. It works. Don't let some asshole rush you." He ruffled her hair, going on, "And, p.s., if you have to concentrate, he's not doing it right." He stood up to leave, and said, "I'm meeting the guys and Steph to grab dinner. You want to come?"

She smiled, "I've actually got a date tonight, but thanks. Guy from one of my classes. We'll probably end the night with a handshake."

He smiled and told her it was perfect.

Her date with Trevor was just as she anticipated. Awkward conversations. Awkward silences. Nothing in common.

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He slid into his seat the next morning and asked, "So, how was the date?"

"Bad. Not even a handshake." She hit him when he started silently shaking in laughter. "Oh, and it just gets better. My grandma has decided I need to attend some party this Friday at their house, mix with Yale alumni or something."

"Cheer up, Ace. I got the hook on that one, too. We can protect each other from the masses. In the meantime, Finn wants to have a party tonight. Come and save me from the lunacy." She made a noncommittal sound, and he pushed, "I mean it, Ace. Come, please."

She liked Logan and his friends, so later that night she followed the sound of the blaring music towards the guys' dorm room. She found the door wide open with people overflowing into the hall. Working her way through the throngs of people, she saw Finn at the bar wearing a sailor hat. She walked over to tell him how festive he looked and was intercepted a minute later by Logan and Steph. They both hugged her. "Hi, guys. Some party."

Steph rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Finn pulls them together fast. Except the keg is almost blown already and Colin is having to work on getting another delivered. So I have nobody to dance with...say you'll dance with me, please? I can't get Huntz to do it." Steph dragged her towards the makeshift dance floor.

When Rory finally escaped a little while later, she got herself a beer and found herself a corner from which to watch the action. She wasn't a big party-goer, and tended to stay near the sidelines. She was surprised when a guy approached her and started talking about the football game this weekend. Rory knew next to nothing about sports and just nodded when he continued on oblivious to her lack of knowledge or interest. She must have been transmitting it though, even though this guy was too drunk to catch on, because Logan came to her rescue a few seconds later. He grabbed her hand, "Hey Ace, come see ... my new laptop. Excuse us," he told the guy.

She raised an eyebrow at him as he pulled her away. "That was smooth, Huntzberger. I can see why the women flock to you."

"You want me to take you back to the guy slurring his words and trying to look down your shirt? Because I can." She laughed at him. "So did you really get a new laptop? One we can actually use?" She'd been making fun of his old one, because it was really old. Logan hadn't put much effort into school supplies, ever. "Yep. Come on. I'll show you." He steered her into his room and shut the door against the noise. She saw the laptop tossed on his pillow and sat on his bed to mess with it. "This is amazing, Logan. Now I'm jealous." He sat next to her leaning against his headboard. "Yeah, I guess. But let me show you the newest version of Clash," he said referring to a video game they played sometimes waiting for class to start. "It's badass. Way better than the old one." She shook her head but leaned back next to him to watch. Twenty minutes later they were both out of beer and still playing the game. He ran out to refill them, and they kept at it.

An hour later, Steph found them, heads together over the laptop, arguing about which way to go. "You guys formed your own sub-party." They laughed, and Rory stood and said she probably needed to get home since she had a morning class. She hugged Steph goodbye and turned to find Logan digging in a drawer and pulling a sweatshirt over his head. "I'll walk you back. It's late."

"I'm a big girl, Logan. Stay and enjoy your party."

Steph agreed it was too late for her to walk back solo, so Rory and Logan walked and talked. "I had fun tonight, Logan. Way better than last night."

"I had fun too." He had his hands in his pockets. "Okay. Hit me. Tell me what went wrong last night."

"It was awkward. We didn't talk much. We sat there at the new Mexican place and said nothing. How is there nothing to say? Am I that boring?"

He laughed. "Ace, you're not boring. And you're a talker. I thought you were quiet at the beginning of the semester, but now I'm becoming an expert at following your rambles."

"I just wasn't interested. And I guess neither was he. And you're different, I like talking to you so I talk a lot. You want me to stop rambling?"

"God, no. Then we'd have awkward silences," he joked.

"You're full of it. We would not."

When they reached her room, he kissed her cheek and told her to enjoy her nice quiet bed. "I have to go back and kick all those damn people out so I can sleep."

"There's probably a hundred people in your room right now. All drunk and loud and stupid. Not unlike me this past Sunday." He smiled. She went on, "But it's going to take hours to clear that out. You can stay here for a while, if you want." They climbed into her bed to resume their game, but her bed was smaller than his and they didn't really fit side by side. Logan picked her up and put her between his legs with the laptop on her lap. His arms reached around her to play. She asked, "You okay with this? Am I squishing you?" He said he was good and they played until they fell asleep. He woke in the very early morning still half sitting with Rory against his chest and wrapped in his arms. Exhausted, he shifted them down so they weren't at such a weird angle and fell quickly back to sleep.

Rory's alarm woke them a few hours later. She was half on top of him, and he was holding onto her. She started to apologize for being all over him, but he told her it was fine and thanked her for letting him stay over, even if inadvertently. He told her it was his first full night sleepover, and she laughed, telling him it was hers too. She walked him out. When Paris saw them, and started in with "Rory, are you out of your mind," Logan turned to defend Rory. Rory gently pushed him out, telling him she had this one under control.

She told Paris about Logan escaping the party, and about him sleeping here. She told Paris to let it go. Paris didn't like it, and stormed off, again.


	4. Chapter 4

It turned out Finn, Colin, and Stephanie also got the hook for Emily Gilmore's party, so they all climbed into the Huntzberger limo Friday night. She looked around inside the car, amazed that people lived this life. She'd given him shit when he told her they'd use the limo. Well, it turned out that Finn, Colin, and Stephanie also each had a car on call. It was a far cry from her life in Stars Hollow.

She'd struggled with what to wear and ended up choosing a navy blue dress her mom made. It was more form fitting than she'd normally wear on the top, and had a pretty skirt that flared above her knee. Steph was in a much more flashy dress, looking spectacular, and the guys were in suits, looking all hot. Society genes produced some hot offspring, she'd give it that. Finn hit the bar in the limo immediately and had loosened his tie before they even hit Hartford. They had a pact - they'd go in, mingle, do what they needed to do, and make a hasty exit as soon as possible.

Rory greeted her grandparents and introduced her friends. She did not miss the glee in their eyes when they realized she'd made friends with Logan Huntzberger, Finn Morgan, Colin McCrae, and Stephanie Vanderbilt. In their minds, that just put her one step closer to their world than her mom's world. When the others went off to find their own parents to check in, she caught up with her grandparents for a few minutes and met some of their guests.

Spotting Logan on the dance floor with a blonde, she sighed and turned to go in search of Steph. He caught her gaze though, and mouthed, help. Biting her lip, she mustered up her courage and walked over, asking if she could cut in. The blonde gave her a nasty look before walking away. Pulling her into his arms to continue the dance, he smirked at her, "Thanks, Ace. Now I don't look like a dickhead."

Rory shook her head. "Great. Instead, I look like a lovelorn idiot, hoping to catch your attention. And I think that girl might actually have me killed. You owe me, Huntzberger."

Smiling down at her, "You've got my attention. You look beautiful tonight, Rory. Who knew you cleaned up so well."

She smacked him on the chest, stepped on his foot on purpose, and smiled. That was fun. She relaxed into the dance, and into him. When the song ended, he steered her to the bar, where he saw Finn flirting with the bartender. "What's it going to be, Ace? You can't very well drink a beer here; not very ladylike and all."

He got her a martini, and they stood watching Finn in action, until they heard a voice behind them.

"Well, well, if it isn't Mary." Logan and Rory turned, and Rory glared when she saw Tristan Dugrey standing in front of them. "Although, I think we might need to change your name if you've been broken in by Huntz here."

Pissed but feeling Logan tense next to her, Rory grabbed onto his arm, holding him in place, and said, "Still an asshole, I see. What are you doing here, Tristan?"

Ignoring Rory, "How's it going, Huntzberger? Given up the single life? Because I can't imagine Mary here being your fuck buddy."

Logan pulled Rory into his side and rested his hand on her hip. "What's your problem, Dugrey?" Hearing Logan's tone, Finn straightened up and shifted towards them.

Rory, not liking how this was going and not wanting Logan and Finn to cause a scene they'd get in trouble for, spoke up. "Go away, Tristan. Get a life, far from me." Taking a sip from her drink, she turned back towards the bar, bringing Logan with her.

Tristan sneered. "Whipped, too. She's that good, huh? I knew she would be. Makes me wish I'd pushed her harder at Chilton."

That was it. Logan had him by the neck pushed against a wall, and Finn, now joined by Colin and Steph, blocked the view to avoid a scene. "Leave her the fuck alone. Don't talk to her. Don't talk about her. Don't go near her." He shoved him away, and watched Tristan go. Rory stood there stunned, wondering what to do next.

"Um, Logan. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine." Shaking his head, he looked around to everyone, "Are we done here? Can we go?"

Nodding, they all said their goodbyes and made a quick exit.

Rory broke the silence in the limo, "Well, society sure is exciting. Who knew."

Logan walked with her back to her dorm room. "So, Dugrey?"

She wrinkled her nose. "Yeah. He was the bane of my existence at Chilton. Constantly after me, like I was the grand prize. I think it was the innocence thing - hence, Mary."

Looking down at her and smiling, "Yeah, I got that. You still give off the innocent vibe."

She didn't know what to say. She was pretty innocent. "Yeah, well. Look, I'm sorry about what happened tonight. That you got pulled into this. My problem became yours."

"Ace."

She rambled on. "And he said all that stuff about you. I'm so sorry." And then she snorted, "He thinks your study partner has you whipped. That's actually kind of funny."

"Laugh it up, funny girl."

Reaching her door, she gave him back his jacket. "Thanks for tonight. For coming, for sticking up for me, for walking me back." She stood up on her tippy toes and kissed his cheek.

"No problem. Night, Ace."

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Logan somehow talked her into going to the ballet with him Saturday afternoon, telling her he'd fall asleep if he went alone, and then he wouldn't get his article done, and his dad would disinherit him. She told him to take Finn. He said a different series of events would occur if he took Finn, but the end result would be the same. So she went.

Rory was horrified when they got there and saw they had front and center seats. She rolled her eyes at Logan - rich boy. She dragged him towards the back and off to the side, found two people without others near them and offered to trade seats with them. Seeing the tickets, they jumped at the offer. "So we just gave away the best seats in the theater to sit in a corner?"

"Yep."

He smirked at her. "Is this so we can make out? Because I can get behind this move then."

"Yes, Logan. It's all I can think about. But I'll try to restrain myself." She laughed when he told her not to try too hard. "Neither of us likes the ballet and, if we sat where your tickets were, we would have had to pay attention and act interested. Now, we can talk and we can work on the article while we're here to get it done faster. And it won't be embarrassing if one of us falls asleep." He told her she was his hero.

They whispered back and forth as it began, and it felt loud even where they were sitting. So ten minutes into it, Logan lifted the armrest between them and pulled her closer to him. Leaning into him, she told him, "I don't think we can get half your money back even if we only use one seat." She took notes, and wrote what he whispered to her. At one point he told her it looked like the dancers were having sex. She didn't write that, and he told her that was going in the article. An hour in, she gave up on the notes and just watched. Towards the end, she had to admit it was sexual at times, and reached for her notes to add it. "Told you," he whispered.

He offered to take her to dinner after as a thank you for sitting through two hours of ballet, but she suggested they grab Chinese, and go back to his dorm to finish the article while it was still fresh in their minds. He looked at her funny. It was so easy to forget who he was. She looked down at her feet. He didn't want to eat take out and do schoolwork in his dorm on a Saturday night.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He didn't like how she suddenly looked sad. "I wasn't saying no."

"I know it's Saturday night, Logan."

"Rory, all I was thinking was how you turned down dinner out in Hartford in favor of take out Chinese. And helping me. It's just different. Let's do it. Okay?" When she nodded, he asked if she'd call and order what she wanted and pick something for him.

She did, and they sat around his coffee table later, working on his article and sharing Chinese food out of boxes. He had laughed when he saw how much food she ordered and then, when she started eating, realized he better get going if he wanted any. He had to pry the Kung pao chicken out of her hands to get some. He wrote and she googled to make the terminology more accurate. He walked her home again, and he kissed her cheek again.

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Rory got caught up on studying and her YDN articles the rest of the weekend. She was just laying around thinking about dinner on Sunday when her phone buzzed. Logan.

We're going to eat. Want to come?

Yes. I'm starving. I'll eat anything.

I'll pick you up in 15 minutes.

I'll be ready.

Twenty minutes later, she was in Logan's SUV. Bouncing around a little, "So what are we eating? I'm sooo hungry. We're getting real food, right? I'm sooo hungry."

He looked at her like she was nuts. "As opposed to fake food?"

"As opposed to some health food nonsense. I need more than a tofu wrap or something."

"You're an odd duck, Ace. Steph wanted wings. So, you're getting bar food."

"Perfect."

Everyone except Logan laughed at her order, thinking she was being funny. And then stared in awe when she plowed through a burger, fries, onion rings, and a few wings.

Colin looked confused, and asked how she was not 300 pounds.

"I'm a medical marvel," happily finishing off a wing.

A little while later, she and Steph sat at the table nursing their beers while the guys played pool.

Steph looked like she wanted to say something but hesitated. "What's up," Rory asked.

"So, there's some chatter out there."

Confused, Rory asked, "Chatter?"

"About you and Logan."

"What about us?"

"Well, Logan doesn't have girl friends. Friends that are girls. Other than me, and I'm more like his sister. We've been friends - the four of us - since elementary school. We're more family than friends really, relied on each other more than our actual families growing up. But what I'm trying to say, is there's talk about you guys spending so much time together. And while no one will say anything to him, you may get some feedback. Especially from the female population." Rory appreciated a good ramble, and that was definitely a good ramble.

"What do you mean? The female population? The female population doesn't want Logan to have friends? That's kind of ridiculous."

"Well, they don't want him to have female friends with whom he spends a bunch of time. And to take the level of ridiculousness a little further, and maybe better explain it. There's a line."

"A line for what?"

"To be with him."

"What?" She kind of shrieked it. Logan looked over at her with a raised eyebrow, and she just waved at him.

"It may be a fictional line, but the concept exists. And you've jumped the line."

"What? I'm not in any line! I didn't jump any line!" Seriously, she thought, who comes up with this crap.

"Rory."

"Does Logan know about this line?"

"Not more than the joke of it. He tries to just do his own thing, and to hell with what others think."

"Good. Good for him." She looked over at him, messing around with Finn, and smiled at their antics. "Look, Steph, I'm glad he and I got assigned to each other in class, and that I got to meet you guys. I tend to be more introverted, and don't have a huge group of friends. So I'm very happy to know you all and like you all. I'm so sorry for the drama that's come with me! I promise I'm really pretty boring."

"We like you, too. You fit right in. I just don't want you to be surprised if you hear something on campus, or get a nasty gram from some angry chick. Huntz is a hot commodity, always has been, and drama unfolds around him sometimes. Don't worry about it."

"He feels like a good guy. Despite all that stuff, he feels safe."

Stephanie let that sink in. She was pretty sure, if they polled every female at Yale and made them come up with one word to describe Logan Huntzberger, only one would say safe. And she was so glad Logan found that one. To be a friend or otherwise. Her money was on the otherwise part of it, because Logan had never brought another female into their mix. She knew it would happen at some point with either Logan or Finn, but she hadn't really expected it to happen this soon. She was glad, though. She really liked Rory. And she looked forward to watching Logan take the fall.


	5. Chapter 5

Finn was antsy on Monday night. He wanted to go out and was giving Logan the hard court press to go with him. Logan, sprawled out in a chair and tossing a football, listened to Finn's sales pitch. He wasn't going, and had already told Finn that, but that didn't make it less entertaining. Colin watched amused, exempt from Finn's drama because he already had plans to meet up with Steph later.

"Come on, Logan. Let's go find some willing women. I'm feeling lucky."

Logan laughed, "You're always feeling lucky. Go and get lucky."

"When's the last time you got lucky? Been a while." He laughed when Logan threw the ball at him. "What if I get Gilmore to come?"

Still amused, Logan told him, "Give it a rest, Finn."

"A rest!? Never. Your first crush is a thing we will harp on for a long time to come."

"We're not twelve. No one says crush anymore."

Finn rolled his eyes. "I do. And you have one."

Finally, Colin joined in. "This is a ridiculous conversation, and I'm glad no one else is around to hear it because they'd be laughing their asses off. It might be our all-time low, so thanks for that Huntz. But since we're already in the middle of it, here's where we're at. It's a ridiculous conversation," he said again to Finn, before looking at Logan, "and an accurate one. Finn's right. You've got a crush. You don't do crushes, but it's been weeks since you've so much as looked at anyone besides Rory. You won't go out with Finn and do what you do because you feel like you'll be cheating on Rory. I'm not sure if you've already accepted it and are considering what to do about it, or if you're in denial and avoiding the whole thing." Giving up on waiting for Logan to respond, he asked, "So which is it?"

Logan shrugged his shoulders. "Should I be on that couch while you analyze my life? But fine. I like her. I don't know what I'm going to do about it. Yet."

Finn pushed, "So tonight?"

"I tell you what, Finn. I'll see what she's doing tonight, but I don't know how me and Rory going to some party helps you find a hook up."

Monday afternoon had come with vicious cramps for Rory. She felt awful. Fortunately Paris wasn't due back from the weekend until Tuesday, so that evening she changed into pajama pants and a T-shirt, grabbed a blanket and heating pad, and laid down on the couch to watch TV in peace and quiet. She reached over to grab her phone when it beeped with a text message.

Logan: Finn is driving me insane. Do you want to go to a party at Smith?

Rory: I can't. I don't feel great.

Logan: What's up? Sick?

Rory: I'll be fine. Go to party - have fun.

Logan: Do you need anything?

Rory: No, I'm good. Thanks. See you tomorrow.

An hour later she got up to answer her door. Logan leaned against the wall, with his hands in his pockets. Jeans and Yale hoodie Logan. Her favorite. "Logan. What are you doing here? I told you to go to the party!" She backed up so he could come in.

"I wanted to check on you." He looked at her in her pink pajama pants with dancing cows and white T-shirt that barely hit the top of her pants, and mentally groaned. She looked sleepily sexy. "So what's wrong?"

"Girly stuff. Cramps." She shrugged. "This hasn't happened in years, but it hurts. Bad." He ruffled her hair and half hugged her.

"Can I stay? For a little while?"

"Sure. But then you should go out. Really, Logan. I'm fine, and I feel bad you're missing your night out."

"Lost interest." She smiled at him. She told him she was going to hit the restroom and she'd be right back. She took a few more pills and came out to see he'd taken off the hoodie, kicked off his shoes, and was laying in her spot. She put her hands on her hips and looked at him. She was getting used to sharing space with Logan, and he seemed to like it too. She scooted him up so she'd be a little more upright.

She sat and leaned back into him, grabbed the heating pad for her stomach, and pulled the blanket over them. "You could be out doing party things right now. Just so you know."

"I'm good here, Ace." He put his hands on her stomach on the heating pad, "Is this thing hot enough?"

"Just wait. It cycles. You'll be sweating in a little while between my weight and its heat." She rested her head back on his chest, "So what do you want to watch?"

They watched Weekend at Bernie's and then half of Gladiator before they fell asleep. They woke up early, with her stretched out on top of him. Shifting around to focus on her stomach and happy to note the cramps were gone, she laid back down on him, putting her face into his neck. "Thanks for staying." He put his arm around her and closed his eyes again. He didn't know what was happening between them – it was all new to him – but he figured they'd figure it out. At some point.

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She met Colin and Logan for a late lunch at the cafeteria Wednesday. She was giddy with excitement. After lunch they were going to pick up Finn to see the newest Star Wars movie. She had to review it, so she got sneak preview tickets. Steph said she'd rather have her toenails pulled out than go with them. Rory loved Star Wars. Logan smiled at her, thinking how cute she was in her Yoda shirt. He liked the short jean skirt, too - Rory had some legs.

Finishing up, they walked out to Logan's SUV, called Finn to come down, and went to the movie theater. Rory was a movie theater's dream customer. She got so much crap. Giant bucket of popcorn, handfuls of candy, and a Diet Coke. When he laughed at the diet drink, she said, "What? I don't want to get fat!" He grabbed half her stuff to carry it and said, "Good strategy."

They sat middle center, and Rory was between Logan and Finn. Finn had gotten into the spirit, too - his shirt had a picture of Darth Vader and said "Whose your Daddy?" Finn also liked greasy popcorn, so they had the bucket between them and were plowing through it at a rapid rate. Logan and Colin watched them with barely disguised disgust.

When the lights went out, Finn told Logan to keep his hands to himself. So of course Logan put his arm around Rory and his hand landed on Finn's shoulder. Finn choked on his popcorn, and Rory smacked him on his back, laughing. The movie was good.

That night, Rory stared at the phone after Steph hung up. Odd. It looked like she was going to New York for a spa weekend in two days. Steph was so excited, and Rory didn't know how to tell her she wasn't really a spa person. At least she didn't think she was, she'd never been. Steph's mom and aunt had been set to go, and their plans fell through, so Steph jumped on it - otherwise, it'd go to waste, she said. Rory didn't know about that, but guessed she'd leave it in Steph's hands and hope for the best.

She was still mulling it over the next night when she was getting ready to walk over to the Pub to meet them all for dinner. What happened at a spa weekend? She found them sitting already, and squeezed in the booth. Steph immediately started in on everything she'd booked for them. Rory thought some of it sounded painful. Logan watched Rory's face as Steph talked and hid his smile. She was clearly weary of this whole thing. Rory's beer arrived and she took a sip, while Steph was telling her how they'd be plied with wine, which Rory guessed sounded okay, and then massaged all over by the hottest masseurs in New York. Rory choked on her beer. "Um, what? What does that mean? What are they massaging?" Steph wagged her eyebrows at her, "Everything." Rory was starting to panic, and Logan saw it coming. He grabbed her hand under the table and sat it on his leg with their fingers entwined. He wasn't thrilled at the thought of random guys touching Rory, but was more concerned about her being nervous all weekend. "Relax, Ace. You're going to be all smooth and shiny when they're done with you." Colin knew all about that, and leaned over to whisper to Steph. He liked post-spa Steph a lot. Rory turned to look at Logan with wide eyes. "Seriously, Rory. Steph loves this shit. I'm guessing you're going to like it too." She let out a breath and relaxed slightly. People wouldn't keep going back if it was awful, would they?

On Friday afternoon, Steph and Rory were zipping down the highway approaching the city, music blaring. "Just wait, Rory. You're going to love it." Rory nodded, and smiled. They were whisked in, shown their room, which was by far the fanciest place Rory had ever seen, and handed robes. From there, they started the journey. Two hours in and Rory had relaxed. The wine helped.

Logan stood at the bar in the Pub drinking a beer and listened to Finn and their friend Ben talk women. Finn had been working on Juliet for a few weeks, with little success. And Ben had been working on everyone, all the time, with pretty decent success. Logan laughed, and thought it funny he had nothing to add to the conversation since he hadn't been doing anything lately, other than hanging out with Rory. They talked to their friends at the bar, and Finn and Ben were especially attentive to the females hanging around them. Over the next few hours, Logan declined offers to dance and a few offers for more. Ben, looking oddly at Logan and being Yale-educated and no dummy, jumped in to dance and charm the rejected women. Finally, he asked, "What's up, Huntz? You're quiet tonight. Waiting for something else?" He liked Ben, but wasn't going to bite on that. And he knew Finn wouldn't either. Finn would wait til they were home to give him shit about his "crush" on Rory and his nonexistent sex life these days. "Not tonight," and then reached for his phone when he felt it vibrate. Seeing it was Rory, he stepped towards the door, "See you guys later."

"Hi Ace. How's the spa life?" He started walking back towards his dorm.

"It's good. You and Steph were right. I relaxed."

"I'm glad. Guessing the wine helped."

She laughed. "Yep. I never would have made it through tonight's massage without passing out without the wine. Who in the world signs up to have strangers touch them?"

"There's all kinds of people. Tell me about the massage."

"Yeah. About that. So they make you take off your clothes, put on this robe, and then put you in this room, and tell you to take off the robe and lay on this table under a sheet. Talk about uncomfortable. And then this guy walks in, ugh. So awkward."

"And?"

"And what? He starts doing his massage thing. For an hour. Gotta say, I'm feeling loose, but I hope that's it on the massages. I don't have high hopes that Steph stopped at one, though."

He laughed. "Unlikely. She's a fan."

"You're not kidding. So what are you doing?"

"Walking home. Just left the Pub."

"It's barely 10:00. Awfully early for you to be calling it a night."

"Finn and I got there at 5:00. I'm done. Finn's hanging in there."

"Juliet still not budging?" She'd heard about the Finn – Juliet battle a few times now and was fascinated.

"Nope. She's holding strong."

She laughed. "Good for her. I want to meet her. Finn's cute and fun, so I'm interested in the girl that resists him after such a concerted effort by him."

Logan got to his room, grabbed a beer, sat on the couch, and they talked for an hour. He'd never talked on the phone for an hour in his life.

When they got home late Sunday afternoon, Rory thanked Steph. She'd had fun, and she felt fantastic. It hadn't all been fantastic, as some of it had hurt like a bitch, but she was good now. She was pretty sure she was glowing. Steph hugged her and went off in search of Colin.

She unpacked and grabbed her phone to text Logan. She'd had two nights in New York to think about her relationship with Logan. She knew he'd become her go-to person for most everything. She liked him, as a friend and as more than a friend. She was comfortable with him. At the same time, she was feeling more and more edgy around him. It was more, way more, than she'd ever felt for her first two high school boyfriends. This was just … more. And because it felt right, she'd talked herself into letting it play out. God, she hoped he was on the same page.

Rory: I'm back. Dinner plans?

Logan: Nope - was hoping you'd be back to eat.

Rory: Mexican?

Logan: Scene of the failed date?

Rory: Yep. We can replace that memory with a good one.

Logan: I'll pick you up in a little while.

She opened the door and found him standing there in jeans with a button down shirt tucked in. He was so cute, she thought as she hugged him. He lifted her a little and smelled her hair and neck. "You smell good, Ace. Have fun?" She was glowing, her hair was all shiny, and he tried not to think about the rest of it.

"Yeah. It was good. Not sure I'd jump at the chance to go back, but I've been rubbed, buffed, waxed, plucked, and who knows what else when I closed my eyes." He took her hand, and they walked to his car.

When they sat at the restaurant, across from each other, she asked him if he was sure he didn't want to sit next to her. He raised his eyebrow. "He sat next to you?" At her nod, he laughed. They ate, tried each other's food, and talked the whole meal. When they stood, she said, "Look at that, no awkward silences." He smiled at her.

He had to study that night and most of tomorrow for a big test, so he dropped her off. She thanked him for dinner, and hugged him again. He kissed her neck, sniffing her again. "You're smelling me - again."

He smirked at her. "You smell me all the time. And you smell really good."

"Well, you're going to be happy that I have a whole bag of this stuff then. Steph went a little overboard when they showed her the credit left on the account."

Groaning, he told her goodnight and left.


	6. Chapter 6

Rory was sitting on a bench by her favorite coffee cart on Tuesday afternoon thinking about the article Doyle asked her to research. Secret societies at Yale. A couple were rumored to exist, but the one she wanted to focus on - the one that sounded the coolest - was one called the Life and Death Brigade. She was so concentrated on reading the article on her laptop that she didn't see Logan jogging over to her. When he was near and she heard pounding feet, she looked up.

He was in loose shorts and a long sleeve shirt with a T-shirt over it, and had just yanked his ear buds out. He was all sweaty, and his blonde hair was spiky in wet chunks. "Looking very academic, Ace." And cute, he thought, looking at her capris, fitted t-shirt, and ponytail.

"Looking very sweaty, Huntzberger." And hot, she thought, feeling all tingly. He leaned over towards her, acting like he was going to wipe his sweat on her, and she screeched. "Eww!"

"Give me 10 minutes and I'll be ready. In fact, why don't you come with me, we can just meet at my place."

She pictured Finn passed out at the table, and he must have caught on. "Finn was out when I left about an hour ago."

She packed up her stuff and let Logan pull her up. Walking across the field, she paid attention to the people around her. No one was overtly watching, but she thought maybe she caught a few stares. Or maybe she was an idiot and imagining things after Steph's warning.

Logan left her in the common room and went to take a quick shower. She sat on the couch and went back to her secret society research until Finn and Colin came in, talking about some sort of scavenger hunt on campus. They talked to her for a minute and fired up the Xbox. When Logan walked out and saw them, he waved her back into his room.

"Sorry. We can do this here," motioning towards his desk.

She dumped all her stuff on his floor and sat down on the bed. "Too tight up there. Come on, let's do this." She flipped over onto her stomach and grabbed her laptop, and after Logan flopped down next to her, they got started. They each knew the other's writing style so well at this point that they rarely spent an hour on the assignments. Hitting send, he stretched. She propped herself up on her elbow and told him about her secret society article, watching his face closely. She'd seen reference to a Huntzberger involved in the LDB 50 years ago in her research. He didn't flinch but she thought she saw something in his face. "So, any thoughts on where I go with this next?"

"You know."

"I guessed."

"It's a secret society, emphasis on the secret part."

"Come on, Logan! I need you." He smirked at her. "Not like that! Dirty!"

Giving in, "I doubt Professor Kelly envisioned my obligations to you to span this far. Let me look into it. Keep your Friday night open, just in case."

"Yay!" She leaned over to kiss his cheek and hopped up off the bed. "It's a thrill to be in your bed, as always, Huntzberger."

Colin knocked on the door as she was getting ready to leave. He popped his head in and told Logan he had numbers 1-10 and they started in 10 minutes, and left. Rory didn't understand what that meant and looked at Logan, who was looking at his phone as it beeped. She asked, "Do I want to know?" He smiled, "Normally I'd say no, but given your current interest in a certain part of my life, you probably do. But I can't tell you. Yet."

She pouted. "Ror, you look so cute. But it's not going to work."

"Hmph. Okay, well, your 10 minutes for whatever you're about to do is running so I'll get out of your way."

"Actually, before you go, you can help me, and you do need something from me, so now I need something from you." She waved her arms telling him to get on with it. "I need your bra and underwear."

She snorted, "What?"

"I need them, and I need you to let me take a video of us with them, time stamped, after 6:00. So in 5 minutes."

"Scavenger hunt."

"Hmm. So, Ace, what do you say?"

"If I say no?"

"Then I have to go talk some other Yale student out of her clothes." He grinned at her, knowing he had her.

She sure as shit didn't like the sound of that. "You drive me bananas, Huntzberger." And she slammed his bathroom door shut behind her.

She came out 2 minutes later, and handed him her pale blue satin bra and matching underwear. At least they were cute, she thought. He looked down at them, and groaned. "They match your eyes. I'm going to have this image in my head now."

She melted a little when he noticed they matched her eyes. Okay, she melted a lot. "That's fine, but how many other people are also going to have that image in their head." He told her just the people who checked at the end, also not liking the thought.

"Come on, we have to do the video." He sat at his desk and pulled her down onto his lap. "Wait," she bit her lip and hopped back up, "I need to borrow a sweatshirt or something. Sorry. I know you're in a hurry. But I'm a freak, and my shirt is too tight to do this without a bra." He got up, grabbed a Yale sweatshirt, and pulled it over her head. "Better?" She nodded. She repeated what he told her to say. "Hi, I'm Rory Gilmore, and I just took off my bra and underwear - these (waving them around) - and gave them to Logan Huntzberger. It's 6:01."

Done. "You owe me big, Logan. That was mortifying. You're lucky I like you." Then she hugged him and told him good luck before leaving. She popped her head back in, "And don't lose my underwear!"

Logan leaned back in his chair, and groaned again after she left. Now he'd have images of Rory on his bed, wearing blue lingerie, running through his mind, to go alongside the ones of her sleeping wrapped around him in her bed and on her couch. And of her running around in his clothes.

Rory got a text when she was getting ready for bed later.

"We won."

"Yippee. When do I get my underwear back?"

"I'm keeping them."

"Weirdo. Then I'm keeping your sweatshirt. It smells like you."

"Deal."

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They finished their assignment on Thursday afternoon. After, they ate pizza and watched TV spread out on opposite ends of Rory's couch. When Logan fell asleep, and Rory was starting to doze but couldn't get comfortable, she grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch, climbed up on him and wedged herself between him and the couch back, covered them up, and let herself go.

Feeling her movement, he half woke up, heard Rory mumble, "nap," wrapped his arms around her, and fell back asleep. Two hours later he woke to his phone beeping with texts. Keeping one arm around sleeping Rory, he checked his phone and smiled.

Ace was going to be happy. It looked like she was coming to see the Life and Death Brigade in action. He wanted to hear what she thought about it all - another new thing for him. As advertised, he kept his involvement with women short, and didn't engage in long conversation. He didn't sleep with them, and he sure as hell didn't nap with them. At least he hadn't in the past. Now, he didn't do anything with anyone, other than Rory. Colin and Finn had upped the shit they'd been giving him. He knew he'd have to figure this out soon because he liked this, right here.

When she looked up at him, he smiled at her. "Hey, Ace. So good news about the apparently not-so-secret society - be ready tomorrow night at 7:00 and someone will come get you."

"Umm," she said chewing on her lip. "What do you mean someone? Logan, I can't go somewhere with a stranger. Where are you going to be?"

"It's fine. You'll be fine. It won't be a stranger."

She wanted to see the LBD, but she wanted to see it with him, and she assumed that meant she should read between the lines that he'd be there. "Okay." He hugged her, extricated himself out from under her, and told her he'd see her in the morning.

Logan got back to his room to find Colin grumbling about having to go dancing with Steph and a few of her friends. Logan grabbed a beer and called him a pussy. They all knew Colin wasn't a fan of watching other guys grind on his girlfriend, or knowing other guys had grinded on his girlfriend, so he tended to dance with her a lot, even though it wasn't his favorite thing. Steph loved dancing, and Colin loved Steph. So he danced. An hour later, he was getting ready to go when his phone beeped. He glanced at it, and burst out laughing.

"Go put on your dancing shoes, Huntz. Welcome, my fellow pussy."

Logan looked at him like he was crazy. Colin flipped him his phone so he could read Steph's text. "Meet there in 15 minutes. Talked Rory into coming too so I'm walking over with her." Logan dropped his head onto the table and groaned.

He got up without saying a word, walked to his room, took a quick shower, threw on some jeans and a T-shirt, and met a smirking Colin at the door. "Go fuck yourself, McCrae."

"Don't worry," Colin told him, "I'll be there to back you up when some guy gets too close to her. Or calls you whipped. Again. Never thought I'd see the day." He really was enjoying watching Logan flounder about with Rory. It was good for him, he thought - and hilariously good for the rest of them.

They walked into the bar / club, and saw a Thursday night sized crowd on the dance floor, meaning it was packed as they all anticipated the weekend. They hung back until they saw the girls. A few people waved them over but they kept their focus on Steph and Rory, who, along with a few girls they knew from Steph's dorm, were surrounded by lots of people. Some of whom were male and were indeed trying to grind on them. Logan watched as one of them put his hands on Rory's waist and tried to pull her back closer to him, and smiled when Rory evaded him and moved away. Logan worked his way towards her, and put his hands on her waist. Her head whipped around like she was ready to rip into the guy. Instead, seeing him, she grinned and backed up into him on her own. They moved slower than everyone around them, more rubbing than grinding when he put his arms straight down her sides to keep her in place in front of him. "Hi, Ace," he leaned down towards her ear when she rested her head back on him. "Find yourself in a dancing mood, Huntzberger?"

"I wasn't, but this was worth getting off the couch for." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back flush against him when she turned her face into his neck. "You smell good." She turned in his arms and put hers around his neck, slowly moving one hand up the back of his neck towards his hair. He slid a hand down to her ass, pushing her even closer to him. When she put her mouth right where his T-shirt sat at his neck, and sucked, he ground out, "Rory." She felt like she was on fire, and didn't know what to do.

Logan had never been more turned on in his life, and all he was doing was dancing. He held onto her tight, and then tried to lighten it before he did something he couldn't fix.

The rest of the group came barreling over then, inadvertently interrupting a moment, and they all danced for about an hour before Rory had enough. She'd only promised Steph an hour, and she did an hour. Logan walked her home, hugged her close, and told her again he'd see her tomorrow morning.

She joked she'd probably see him in two hours. "Nope, I need my beauty sleep, Ace." She made a pfft sound. As if.


	7. Chapter 7

She paced around her room at 7:00 on Friday night. She was nervous, and excited. This was very un-Rory like. Secret societies, secret plans. She jumped when she heard the knock and opened the door only to find no one on the other side – just a box on the ground. Gingerly lifting the lid, she stared at the blindfold and note telling her to put it on. She stared at it for a minute longer, getting more nervous. Okay, she could do this, she thought. She shut her door behind her, slid the blindfold over her eyes, and stood there waiting. Hearing a commotion a few feet away, she instinctively leaned back against the wall to get out of the way. She heard the sound of a slap, and a grunt, and tried not to laugh. This felt Finn-esque. She was finally led down the hall and felt the cool air when they walked outside.

She jumped again when someone took her hand, but relaxed when it didn't feel weird. She assumed she was holding Logan's hand.

She heard a car door open, and was gently pushed down and into a seat and buckled in. She felt Logan climb in next to her and heard the door shut. She could smell him, confirming her guess. When she leaned in and put her face near his neck, she felt him laughing. And she heard other people getting into what she assumed was the front seat. She reached out in his direction, and he laced their hands together. Twenty minutes later, they stopped. She was helped out again.

When her blindfold was removed, she blinked and looked around. What she saw was amazing, like she'd been transported to another world. She was in a forest, covered in white lights, with men in tuxedos and women in ball gowns roaming around. Off to the side were tents - like luxury tents. She turned and saw Logan next to her, smiling. He was in a tuxedo, too.

"Oh my god. What is this place? It's like some freakish heaven. Look at these people! Look at you! You look hot, by the way. What do you all do here? What am I allowed to do? Are there rules? Logan! I'm so excited."

He couldn't help but laugh. "Calm down, Ace. This is a Life and Death Brigade event. These are members. Not everyone attends every one, and some are current Yale students and some are LDB alumni. Location changes. You're here to watch, and do what you want. We get to review what you write before you turn it in. Deal?"

At her quick nod, he took her to a tent. "There's a dress for you in there. Get changed and let's see what we see."

She ducked in and looked around. Of course, it was fancy - a society tent. She laughed out loud. She decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it. Experience what the LDB had to offer. She gasped when she saw the dress hanging on a hook and shoes underneath it. The light blue dress shimmered - it was like a fairy tale. She'd never worn a ball gown and laughed at what her mom would say if she ever saw this.

Changed, she slid the shoes on. She messed with her hair a little and decided that was as good as it was going to get. Stepping out, she saw Logan leaning against a tree, waiting for her.

He pushed off and walked over to her. "Ace," he smirked. "You look hot, too. Like a hot princess." She laughed and told him she felt like Alice in Wonderland.

"Where did this dress come from?"

"Steph picked it out." She stared at him. "And I bought it." She shook her head. "Thank you."

He took her around so she could talk to people, and she did, charming them into telling her more than they probably should. He watched her work and didn't think she even realized how people responded to her. He hadn't been kidding, she looked beautiful and, well, sexy, but it was more than that - she was so genuinely interested in everything everyone said that you almost forgot what she looked like. When they got to Colin, Steph, and Finn, they all hugged her. Finn wagged his eyes at her - "Wow, Rory, you've been hiding a kickass body, huh?! If only you had red hair." Colin slapped his head.

They got drinks and moved through the crowd. Logan kept an eye on her as she ventured out to talk to others. He kept a closer eye on her when he saw some of the bigger players talking to her. He saw the guys checking her out and knew they were thinking of her as fresh meat. He didn't like it. And he didn't like it when Robert, whom he didn't really like in the first place, leered at her. When Robert came over to ask him if she was his, he just stared at him until he backed off.

In the meantime, Rory was having an interesting conversation with Ben. Ben shook her hand and smiled at her, saying, "Now it makes sense. It's you. You're the reason." At her confused look, he told her, "Last weekend, at the bar, Huntz turned down a lot of offers, from some pretty hot chicks. I didn't get it, but being the nice guy I am, I consoled the poor rejected women." He winked. She felt butterflies in her stomach, because Logan ... well ... did that mean he didn't want to be with other women? Wasn't with other women? At least that night. What about other nights? This was one topic she'd kept firmly locked in her mind. He put his arm around her shoulders, and it felt friendly enough, "So, how's it feel? You hooked Huntz." She snorted, "He's not a fish." When Logan walked over, Ben was smart enough to let Rory go and excuse himself. She told him, "I like him. He likes you, I can tell. A few of the others felt kind of smarmy." She was perceptive, he thought.

At the sound of silver hitting glasses, they all turned towards a small stage she hadn't noticed. They were welcomed and told the main event was coming up. She followed them around a close turn and into a field. She looked confused at the scaffolding. "Want to do it? There's an extra spot."

"Do what," she asked him, still staring up at it.

"Jump."

She spun around to face him. "What?"

"We're going to jump."

She shook her head. "Not me. I'm not going to jump. You're going to jump?" She was a little panicked at the thought.

He nodded. "Come on, Ror. It's safe. I promise. The LDB has never killed anyone, despite its name. We take risks, but studied risks." He reached out his hand, "Trust me?"

She chewed on her lip and stared at his hand. She looked at the men and women climbing the scaffold ladder, looking ridiculous in their formal wear. She told herself she'd experience it. And she did trust him. "Fuck it," she said to herself. Only she said it out loud. She put her hand in his, and he pulled her to him. "That's the spirit, Ace – fuck it!"

They climbed and eventually made it to the top, where they were met by a guy in a tux holding harnesses. He hooked them in and handed them umbrellas. She asked the guy about the practice rounds, and he told her all the potatoes survived with nary a mark.

She glared at Logan, "Potatoes, Huntzberger? That's the studied risk you sold me on?" He grinned and grabbed her hand.

"Ready?"

Resigned, she told him, "You jump, I jump, Jack." And at the whistle, they squeezed hands and stepped off the platform together into empty space and floated to the ground.

It was exhilarating, and they screamed when they landed. "Oh my god. That was amazing. We flew!"

She hugged him and spun around and around.

He got them more drinks and they caught up with the others. Thinking back to the tents, Rory realized she didn't know what else was happening tonight. "Are we staying here tonight?" Logan nodded.

An hour later they found themselves around a fire, society's elite sprawled out with drinks and nature. It clicked. She turned to Logan, "So that day you came to class looking like hell, and mumbled something about a bonfire, that was LDB-related, wasn't it?" He smiled. "I bet all your cleaners have a hell of a time trying to get the fire smell out of your tuxes." He laughed and pulled her closer to him.

She didn't have their tolerances for alcohol and it caught up with her as the night went on. There was music and dancing, and lots of alcohol. Finn had her doing some sort of chicken dance and grabbed her when she toppled a little too close to the fire. When Logan stepped in, he swayed with her, keeping her upright. She put her arms around his neck, her head on his chest, and dozed off.

When Logan felt her drift, he picked her up, waved to the guys, and carried her to his tent.

His friends sat watching. Finn leaned towards Colin and Steph. "So, ... Huntz ... he's off the market, isn't he?"

"Looks like it'll be official soon," said Colin.

Steph smiled. "Yep," popping the p. "We'll see how long it takes him to realize it." She'd scrambled to get her phone to snap the picture, and now sat back relishing the romance of it all. And looking around at the other LDB members, particularly the female ones, also watching their exit, she thought that should get the gossip mill pumping. Surely Huntz knew that.

RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLR

Rory woke the next morning sprawled out over a sleeping Logan, all warm under the softest blanket. This was becoming a regular occurrence. When school started, she'd never slept with a guy, and now she knew exactly where she fit into Logan when they slept. She looked around to get her bearings. She saw her dress hanging up, next to his tuxedo, and looked down to see she was in one of Logan's t-shirts and he wasn't wearing a shirt. When he started to stretch, she looked up to see him smiling at her. "Hi."

"Hi. Um, Logan. Not that I'm complaining, but how did we get here?"

"You fell asleep dancing. I'll call it that, and not passed out, so you feel better about it." She smacked his chest. And feeling the warmth and muscle, left her hand there. He went on, "I brought you in here, unzipped your dress, put my shirt over your head, and let the dress drop. Your modesty is intact."

"Very funny, but thank you." And because she felt her legs bare against some sort of material, she said, "I'm guessing you got the pajama pants."

"Yep. Had to work with what I had."

"You're a regular Boy Scout, Huntzberger." Then, "This was amazing. Really. Thank you so much for bringing me."

"You're welcome." He rubbed his hands up and down her back. "You ready to get up? We usually head back pretty early."

She started to push off him, taking the blanket with her, giving her a full view of his chest. She looked up to his eyes and smirked. When she noticed the mark near his collarbone, she blushed. She reached out to touch it, and winced. "Does it hurt?"

"No."

She leaned back down and kissed it, and then put her hand over it for a second. "You make me do crazy things."

He watched her walk over to grab her jeans and sweater. She pulled her jeans up under his shirt. "Can I borrow this shirt?"

"Sure. What's mine is yours."

"I mean, you have another one? To wear? You can't go outside like that. We'll have a mob scene."

"Yes, Rory." She stuck her tongue out at him.

Then it hit her. "Oh my god. I didn't tell Paris I'd be gone over night. She'll have called my mom when I didn't come home. My mom will be freaking. Oh my god." She frantically looked for her phone.

He hopped up and touched her arm. "Rory. Stop. I called Paris last night. She knows."

She breathed deep and closed her eyes. "Thank you."


	8. Chapter 8

Rory worked most of the weekend on her secret society article. It was good, she knew it. Maybe the best she'd written. She'd just finished it at the library on Sunday afternoon and was going to proof it one more time when she got back to her dorm before sending it to Logan for the LDB to review and, hopefully, approve. Walking up to her door, she saw a box leaned against the wall, with her name on it.

She grabbed it, unlocked her door and pushed in, and dumped her books on her desk. Carefully opening the box, she unwrapped the tissue to see a picture frame. It held a picture of Logan carrying her bridal style. It was seriously stunning. It showed the night, the fire, the twinkle lights, and a guy in a tux carrying a girl in a blue flowing dress, with her arms wrapped around his neck. She couldn't take her eyes off it. It made her stomach tingle with giant butterflies. She wondered where it came from.

She sat it down and stared at it. After giving herself a minute, she grabbed her phone and texted Logan.

Rory: You carried me Friday night?

Logan: Don't be too impressed. You don't weigh much.

Rory: I got a picture of it.

Logan: Me too. Steph.

Rory: Ah. It's spectacular.

Logan: Photography is her thing. She's good.

Rory: No shit. I can't take my eyes off it. And we look hot.

Logan: We are hot, Ace.

Rory: Hey – I'm going to email you the LDB article in a few. Let me know what you guys think.

Logan: Sweet - can't wait to read it.

Rory: You can read it while I eat dinner with Paris.

Logan: Sucker.

Rory: Yep.

She called Steph to thank her for the picture and gushed over how much she loved it.

RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLR

Two hours later she texted Logan again.

Rory: Are you home?

Logan: Yeah. Writing paper. What's up?

Rory: Can I come over? I've got stuff to finish too so I won't bug you. Paris driving me nuts.

Logan: I'm shocked. Sure. Come.

Rory: Thanks. See you in 10.

They holed up in Logan's room. Rory took the bed, as he was already set up at the desk. They worked in near silence for two hours. Logan finally got up to grab a beer and brought her a water.

Leaning back on her elbows, she decided to play with him a little. In her best southern belle voice, she exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, I'm on Logan Huntzberger's bed! Can you believe it? It's so soft. I can't wait to tell everyone!" She went on and on, and flopped backwards. He just smirked at her.

"Well, Ror, you may be on the bed, but you don't have Logan Huntzberger in the bed with you. Is it still as exciting?"

She grabbed him and pulled him down beside her. "There, now I do." They laid facing each other. "I bet I've been in this bed more than any other girl. I'm probably the envy of the entire female Yale population." She batted her lashes at him.

He laughed. "So you've heard the rumors then."

"Yeah, a little." She shrugged, then, "Am I messing up your game?"

He laughed. "My game? You're such a dork." Shaking his head, he went on, "And, for the record, I got a new bed before school started. Old one was too hard. So, while I hesitate to admit this and ruin the image, you're the only one who has been in this bed with me."

Trying to ignore the flip flop feeling in her stomach, she bit her lip, "That definitely makes it sound like your game is off. Unless you're taking your game to other people's rooms."

He smiled. "Rory, are we really having this conversation? And talking in code?" When she just stared at him uncomfortably, he took pity on her and put her out of her misery. "No, I haven't taken my game on the road since school started." She buried her face in his pillow, and groaned at her own embarrassment, even though she was happy to hear the answer. "And Rory," he waited for her to look up, "of the two of us, you're the one that went out with another guy."

She stared at him, "Please. That was a disaster, as we've discussed multiple times. And, well, ... before. And I don't have any game to use at home or take on the road!"

He stared at her for a few seconds, made a quick decision, and gently pushed her onto her back. He moved over her, holding his weight on his arms, and whispered in her ear, "Just so you know," he dragged his mouth from her ear to her jaw, and moved towards her mouth, gently biting the side of her lip, "my game is solid." She'd have to agree with him. She'd never felt anything like that and moaned low. When he went to lift his head, she put her hand into his hair and pulled him back down to her. They kissed, lightly, just lips touching. He let himself drop down onto her, and she rubbed her free hand over his back and under his T-shirt to feel warm skin. He deepened it a little, and she moaned his name just as he said, "Ror." When they pulled back, both breathing heavy, they stared at each other.

"You make my head spin," she told him.

"That's a good thing. And, Rory, you've got game." He grinned at her and told her she had mad game.

He started to push up off her, and Rory tightened her grip on him to hold him in place. "You're not hurting me."

"Good. But I've got to do something to even the playing field. So just lie there, and look pretty, okay?" She made a face at him. When he went to unbutton her jeans, she looked nervous but didn't stop him. She relaxed when he just pushed them down enough to expose her hipbone. He licked her right there, and then sucked on the skin gently for a minute. He had to close his eyes and count to 10 when she arched her back and said his name. He carefully buttoned her back up, and looked up at her dazed face, a look he was pretty sure was mirrored on his own.

His phone ringing snapped him back. Reaching for it, "My dad." She sat up, kissed his cheek, and told him, "We'll talk tomorrow, okay?"


	9. Chapter 9

Logan beat her to class Monday morning. He started talking as soon as she sat. "Hi. So we've got lots to cover in a short amount of time." He smiled at Rory's wide eyes. "First, the LDB article is perfect - everyone loved it. Ready to print. Second, my dad has summoned me, so I have to go to Chicago for a week. He wants to buy the Tribune." He rolled his eyes. "I leave in two hours. No idea why he thinks I need to be there. Third, we have to go talk to Professor Kelly as soon as this class ends to work out what I need to do so I don't screw you up. And fourth, last but definitely not least, we need to talk about last night at some point. I'm not sure we have time this morning, but we're not letting that go."

She saw the teacher coming down the steps so she jumped right in. "Okay. First, I'm glad you all liked the article, I think it turned out good. Second, I'm very bummed you've got to go, but I think it's cool your dad wants you there. Third, we can deal with the class days with her. We can tell her we'll do the meetings by phone and do the work together, but I'll handle it so you aren't bothered. Fourth, we can talk when you get back, but I can tell you now I have a giant, really dark hickey on my hip." She wagged her eyebrows, Finn-like.

"I want to see."

"Logan."

"Come on, Rory. I'll show you mine if you show me yours." He pulled the collar of his shirt to the side, and showed her his fading mark. She smiled at him. "Tick tock," he told her.

"You want me to undo my pants in class? For real?" He just stared at her. The teacher had started lecturing.

"Rory."

"For the love." She pulled her jacket back on for cover, unbuttoned her jeans, pulled the right side down, and shifted so he could see the mark he left. She raised an eyebrow at him, "We good?"

He leaned closer to whisper. "That's really hot. I'm going to do the left side when I get back. I hope the Tribune goes bankrupt by dinner time."

She laughed, and then covered her mouth as though she coughed to hide it.

TUESDAY:

Rory: You're back Friday?

Logan: Yep – afternoon.

Rory: Want to come to Stars Hollow Saturday? Festival of living art - it's a real shit show.

Logan: Wow - how could I resist that?

Rory; Haha - I had dinner with Steph. We talked about my costume and she said she wanted to come.

Logan: Wait - you have a costume?

Rory: Duh - I'm part of the living art.

Logan: What exactly does that mean?

Rory: I'm a renaissance girl from a portrait of a young girl named Antea - they paint me gold.

Logan: Okay I've heard enough - I'm in.

Rory: My mom is in a Renoir painting.

Logan: Is Kirk in something?

Rory: He's Jesus.

Logan: Of course he is.

Rory: So I'm going home Friday after classes but you guys can come down Saturday in time for lunch. Luke's and I'll give you a tour. Show is at 7.

Logan: Can't wait

Rory: You're in for a real treat. I'm going to bed. Talk to you tomorrow.

Logan: Night Ace.

WEDNESDAY:

Logan: My dad is driving me nuts.

Rory: Sorry - what's wrong?

Logan: I'm not writing enough for YDN.

Rory: You're kicking ass at YDN - did you show him that last article?

Logan: Ugh – no.

Rory: You should - you need me there to be your cheerleader!

Logan: You were a cheerleader? Do you have the uniform still?

Rory: Logan. Have we met? Do I look like a former cheerleader?

Logan: Hmmm

Rory: Back on topic - tell him what you're doing - he'll like it.

Logan: Maybe - I'll see how it goes. I have to go back in to this meeting. Talk to you tomorrow.

Rory: Hang in there, Huntzberger. Half way through!

THURSDAY:

Rory: Turned in both of our assignments for the week. Not as good as usual.

Logan: We make a good team. Thanks for doing it. You're such a rule breaker.

Rory: You're leading me down a dark path.

Logan: It's my life's mission to corrupt you.

Rory: What was on the agenda tonight? Lots of people kissing your ass?

Logan: Ha - sadly, no. Dinner with some of Tribune people.

Rory: Picturing table full of old men drinking scotch.

Logan: Some. And some of the younger management. Current owners big on youth and on women.

Rory: Good for them.

Logan: I guess.

Rory: Did those young women hit on you?

Logan: Yep

Rory: And?

Logan: Nope

Silence

Logan: I miss Yale.

Rory: I miss you.

Logan: When I said I miss Yale, I meant I miss you.

Rory: I'm pretty attached to you - it's kind of embarrassing.

Logan: Right there with you.

Rory: My game is suffering. I'd been trying to practice, but unfortunately it's come to a halt.

Logan: What?

Rory: That's code.

Logan: I know. Who are you practicing with?

Rory: What? Who do you think?

Logan: I don't know, Rory.

Rory: Logan. We've gotten sideways here. I meant I'd been practicing on you and now you're gone.

Logan: Thank god.

Rory: Do you want to have that talk by phone before we screw it up sending mixed messages via text?

Logan: I'll call you now.

She looked at her phone went it rang. She looked at it nervously, before answering.


	10. Chapter 10

***Here's the phone call. Let me know what you think.***

"Hi."

"Hey Ace." Here we go, he thought.

"So ... I'm sorry about that. I didn't realize you'd think I was ... doing anything with anyone else."

The last little bit of tightness in his chest loosened. "It's okay. I read it, and my stomach dropped, but I should have known what you meant. I'm sorry too. I wish I was there with you."

"Me too. I won't take it for granted again."

"I want to be with you, Rory. Can we please finally stop dancing around this and make it official?"

"You don't date."

"I haven't. First time for everything."

"Well, um, in the interest of full disclosure, there would probably be a number of first times involved eventually."

He smirked, glad she couldn't see him. "Are you trying to scare me away? Because it's not working."

"Logan."

"We'll start slow. Go at your pace. I promise."

She closed her eyes. "Yes."

"Yes? Really?"

She smiled at his excitement. "Yes. Keep fighting off those Tribune women, Huntzberger. I don't think sharing is going to be my strong suit."

"Mine either. No sharing. Just you and me, Ace."

"It boggles the mind. Steph says you kind of already laid the groundwork the other night when you carried me away - apparently it was quite the spectacle."

"Memorialized forever in print now."

"I love that picture. I get serious butterflies in my stomach every time I look at it. Which is a lot."

"I brought mine."

"What? You have it with you now?"

"Yep."

"Awe, Logan. You knew you were going to miss me."

"Yeah, I did. I'd already figured that out."

"This should feel weird. Why doesn't it feel weird?"

"Maybe because we've basically been dating for weeks. Think about it."

"Hmm. You did almost get in a fight defending my honor."

"Dugrey is a douchebag."

"He totally is. And Ben, he told me you turned down - hmm what did he call them - lots of hot chicks at the Pub the other night."

"Ben has a big mouth. But I did pretty much piss in a circle around you last weekend at the LDB party. You were a big hit with the LDB players, and I had to shut that down."

"Really? What did you do? Wait, nevermind, I don't want to know. I'll just take my place at the front of the Logan Huntzberger line, and stay there."

"Ror, that line is crap."

"I know. Okay, I'm going to bed. I'll see you in Stars Hollow Saturday. Oh, and happy thought for you, now you'll be meeting my mom as my boyfriend and not just my friend. That should go well."

"I don't care. I'll just be glad to be back and with you. Night, Ace. See you soon."

Rory laid in bed that night thinking about what just happened. She was dating Logan. Her boyfriend was Logan Huntzberger. She was going to be stoned by her fellow classmates. And her mom was going to have a shitfit.

But she was dating Logan!

Logan shut down the TV and thought about what just happened. Rory agreed to date him. He was going to date Ace. He had a girlfriend. What in the hell did he do with a girlfriend?

He'd figure it out. Because Rory agreed to be his girlfriend! He needed Finn to kick his ass for sounding like a pansy.


	11. Chapter 11

Rory got home to Stars Hollow Friday afternoon and went looking for her mom. She found her at the inn, arguing with Sookie about flan. All three of them jumped up and down for a solid minute in their excitement to see each other, and Rory ended up with flan in her hair. Laughing it off, she dragged Lorelai to Luke's for an early dinner before movie night.

"So, tell me everything. Tell me about classes, your cute study partner I've heard so much about. Tell me about Paris. Tell me!"

"Okay, okay. Well Paris is Paris. She's currently on a war path because her life coach told her to stop crafting. Something about needing to find a new outlet. It's not working. Classes are good. We have a few more weeks and then fall break. My cute study partner, well, as of very recently, he's officially my boyfriend. He and a few friends are coming to see the festival tomorrow, so you'll get to meet them."

"Oooh - boyfriend. Tell me more. What's he like?"

"Smart, funny, nice...hot."

"Give me the scale. One to ten."

She bit her lip. "Umm - 100."

"Wow!"

"Yeah. You'll see. So, I guess I should probably prepare you. Tomorrow it's Logan, Finn, Colin, and Stephanie coming. They're...um...well...let's just say, they know grandma and grandpa." She held her breath waiting for her mom's reaction.

There it was. "Rory. Tell me this wasn't an Emily set up."

"It wasn't. You're going to like them. I promise."

"What are the last names of these friends?"

Rory winced. Here we go, she thought. "Huntzberger, Morgan, McCrae, and Vanderbilt."

"Rory!"

"Please give them a chance. I mean it, you're going to like them."

"Really."

"Yes, really. They're not society fans either. You protected yourself, and me, from society life by running away. They protected themselves by finding each other - a family of sorts to get through it, since they were little kids. They only do that stuff as a last resort when dictated by their parents, and the last thing they went to, I had to be at for grandma. So, it's fine."

"Which one is the boyfriend?"

"Logan Huntzberger."

"HPG."

"Yep."

"Okay, my kid. I guess we'll see what we see." They talked about their plan for tomorrow and agreed to lunch at Luke's.

Rory really, really hoped tomorrow went well. Her mom was so anti-society, and she was bringing in four of the biggest families. Face palm. Nothing she could do about it. Movie night went on. They stuffed themselves full of candy and mocked a series of Tom Cruise movies into the wee hours of the night.

Rory was up and bouncing Saturday morning. She was just a few hours away from seeing Logan. Lorelai was less excited, more resigned, but Rory was on her to keep an open mind.

Later, they were outside raking leaves or, more accurately, making piles of leaves to jump in, when they heard a car door slamming. Turning, Rory saw Logan getting out of his SUV and let out a whoop.

She saw his grin and took off towards him. She catapulted herself at him, and he caught her, legs around his waist and held her tight to him. She had leaves on her clothes and in her hair and didn't care. Neither did he, as she pulled his face to her and kissed him.

The others had gotten out and were standing in the front yard watching the scene. Logan had told them what was up, and they were happy to finally watch this unfold. They saw a slightly older version of Rory to the side and walked towards her when she waved them up to the patio. "Hi. I'm Lorelai, Rory's mom." She laughed. "I'm guessing that's Logan over there with his hands on my daughter's butt." They introduced themselves. Lorelai brought them inside. "Are they always like that?"

Steph laughed. "This exact scene is new, but they've been steadily working their way towards it. It's fun to see. We all really like Rory."

Lorelai smiled, "Some maybe more than others?"

Finn piped in, wagging his eyebrows. "Too bad she doesn't have red hair, or I'd give Huntz a run for his money." Colin smacked his head.

Colin told Lorelai they were looking forward to the show. Lorelai snorted. "Oh, you're serious? Rory did explain how these things generally go, didn't she?"

Colin hesitated a little, unsure how to phrase it. Lorelai told him, "Go ahead, spit it out."

"Okay, well she mentioned a shit show."

"Ha, that's perfect! Yeah, welcome to Stars Hollow. Are they seriously still out there? I'm starving – need lunch. Come on, we can have a snack while we wait." They followed her into the kitchen and looked astounded at the amount of candy sitting around. She held out a bag, "We don't really cook. Twizzler?" They shrugged, and dug in.

Outside, Logan finally let Rory slide down. "Hi Ace," he grinned, picking a few leaves from her hair.

She looked sheepish. "Hi. Sorry I jumped you! I was so excited to see you. Feels like forever since you left."

"Rory, I'm never going to tell you not to jump me. I'm glad you did, because I don't know what I would've done with your mom standing there, but I was itching to get my hands on you. Some kiss, by the way."

"It really was. You kiss me now before we go face the firing squad."

He smiled and leaned down towards her. Whereas her kiss had bordered on frantic, his was slow and made her knees weak. When he pulled away, she might have lost her balance a little. "Okay. Hmm. Wow. You're really good at that." He smirked at her, and she grabbed his hand and pulled him into her house to meet her mom.

Lorelai was begrudgingly willing to admit (to herself) she kind of liked the group and especially, much to her surprise, Logan. He was polite and not cocky like she expected. She watched him sitting here at Luke's, looking extraordinarily handsome (Rory hadn't lied), and touching Rory every few minutes as if he thought she might disappear. She watched them all interact, like it was the most natural thing in the world for them to be sitting in a diner, formerly a hardware store, eating cheeseburgers and fries. They didn't blink at Rory's appetite, telling her they knew her well. Maybe this wouldn't be the end of the world.

Rory was going to take them on a tour around town. Logan told Lorelai he was really hoping to meet Kirk, and she told him she was certain there'd be a Kirk sighting at any moment in the town square and very likely also a Kirk meltdown at some point today. Lorelai excused herself to go check in at the inn before she had to get to Miss Patty's for makeup.

Two hours later, they'd seen everything Stars Hollow had to offer. They watched a 10-minute fight between Kirk and Taylor about the broken table Woodbridge sent over for Kirk's moment of glory. And when Taylor suggested canceling Kirk's portrait because of the broken table, and Kirk lost his shit, Rory went to get Luke, knowing he was the only one competent enough to fix the table on short notice. Steph calmed Kirk and talked to him about how to cover up all the scratches he'd recently received after getting mauled by his cat. They got stuck in the middle of an impromptu town meeting at Miss Patty's with surprisingly large attendance for a Saturday afternoon, about proper behavior so they'd impress the Connecticut Arts judges. It may or may not have included an admonishment to Lorelai not to flinch this year as the Renoir girl, which had caused Rory to wince because she knew what was coming. Lorelai didn't disappoint and told them all to pound salt. They watched in horrified silence as Miss Patty performed a number from Guys and Dolls, and hooted when she pulled Finn up on stage and made him dance. He jumped when she pinched his ass. They saw the Dragonfly Inn, met Sookie who plied then with cookies, and also met Michel who told them the people in this town were lunatics. They met Lane, who came running across the town square when she saw Rory, hugged her, and then ran away again when she saw Mrs. Kim heading that way. All in all, Rory thought she covered enough of the freak show before the real show.

She and Steph went to do makeup, and she sent the guys to a pub one block over to have a few drinks until showtime.

In the beehive of activity in the back of Miss Patty's, Rory sat while Steph and others turned her into a golden renaissance girl. The dress weighed a million pounds and was so uncomfortable, not at all like her new blue ballgown. She told Steph, who told her how she looked for hours for that dress and how thrilled she was to find the perfect one for Rory for that night. Steph herself usually dressed to pump up her own hot sex vibe, but she enjoyed finding one that gave off the sexy princess vibe for a change. And, she told Rory, smirking, boy did it work with Logan. Rory smiled.

Logan sat in the Stars Hollow town square waiting for the show to start, still amazed that people actually lived like this. He could picture Rory growing up here, with these over-involved and seemingly well-meaning people and in that picture perfect little house surrounded by wildflowers, with a mom who jumped in leaves with her. It was a far cry from his own childhood.

He smiled when Rory did her portrait thing, and managed not to flinch, and laughed silently when a cell phone rang during Lorelai's, but she didn't flinch. Kirk and his disciples, kind of sadly, didn't flinch either.

By 8:00 that night, Steph and the guys were on the road back to Yale, taking his car, and he was waiting for Rory to get cleaned up so they could go back together. When she emerged all freshly scrubbed, they said goodbye to Lorelai.

"Okay, kids. Study hard. Do Yale-like things." Rory rolled her eyes and hugged her mom. Logan thanked her.

Driving back, Rory talked a mile a minute. She wanted to know about his trip, what he had to do as far as make up work, what he thought of Stars Hollow and the festival. He kept up. He told her the best part of the trip was when she agreed to date him. She looked over at him, smiling when he reached for her hand. She told him it was the highlight of her week, too. As they neared Yale, Rory wasn't ready to leave Logan. It wasn't even 10:00 yet. She chewed on her lip.

"Um, Logan. What are you doing tonight?"

"What are you worrying about, Ace?"

"It's just, before, you would have walked me home, um, and, well, now, I don't know. Do you have plans?"

"Rory, my plans are to be with you. Whatever you want to do. Isn't that how this whole dating thing works?"

She nodded. "Can it be just us tonight? Like maybe a movie? Your room?"

"Sure. Are we avoiding Paris?" She laughed.

"Paris is having issues. Her life coach is changing things up on her."

"Wait, Paris has a life coach? How did I not know that? What does a life coach do?"

"Makes her the best Paris she can be." Logan shuddered.

They were glad to find Logan's dorm room empty. He grabbed them each a beer, while she flipped through the movie options on Netflix. They settled into the couch and watched Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson crash weddings. He had her on her back on the couch within a couple of minutes, telling her he just needed to see her left hipbone to finish the job. She laughed, until his mouth was on her, and then she wasn't laughing any more. Seeing she was a little out of it, he took advantage of the situation and re-did the right one too so they'd match. Marking someone was a new thing for him, and he liked it.

As they started to fade, they shifted so she was spread out on him as usual. They woke to a black screen when Colin and Finn came stumbling in. "Awe, if it isn't the love birds," Finn cooed.

Logan sat them up and told Finn to fuck off. He dragged a dazed Rory to his room as Finn saluted them. "You okay sleeping here?" She nodded and, still half asleep, took her jeans off and climbed into the bed. Logan yanked off his shirt and stripped down to his boxers and climbed in with her. She was on him and asleep within seconds.


	12. Chapter 12

He woke up the next morning with an arm full of Rory. She stretched out, moving almost all the way on top of him, before she realized what she was doing. Feeling him pressed against her, she pushed closer, causing him to groan. In unchartered territory for her, she looked up at him with a half-smile. He lifted her until she was sitting on him, knees on either side. He put his hands on her hips, guiding her. She put her hands on his chest and pushed down to rock back and forth on him. "Oh my god, Logan," she moaned. He couldn't take his eyes off of her and felt like he was going to explode. He pushed her down harder, and she did explode seconds later, sending him over the edge too. Careful to keep their now soaked underwear separate, he moved her back down to the bed. "Now that's a wake-up call," he told her. She hid her face in the pillow, embarrassed. "Rory, look at me. Rory." When she finally looked up, he told her, "Are you okay with this?"

"Well, I sort of started it. It's just...I...don't know what to do."

"You knew what to do right there. I should be the one hiding, since you just took me down in an embarrassingly short amount of time. So much for hanging in there," he laughed.

She smiled at him, moving to stand. "Another first." She went into the bathroom to get cleaned up, leaving him there wondering how he'd handle an experienced Rory down the road because he was struggling with an inexperienced Rory now. Holy shit.

Logan spent the day getting caught up with school, and Rory went shopping with Steph. The following Saturday was Logan's 21st birthday, and Rory had been stressing about what all to get him. What do you get the multi-millionaire college student? She'd finally settled on a week's worth of fun things, and she needed a few more things. She was ending the week with a costume for her she thought he'd really like for Steph's Halloween party the night of his birthday. Steph had helped with that too, coming back to Rory's room to adjust and hem the Chilton uniform 16-year old Rory had worn. Steph was confident Logan was really going to like school girl Rory, and Rory thought so too. Tonight, though, they were all meeting at the Pub, and current student members of the LDB were going to be there. Rory was unveiling present #1 for Logan. Both she and Steph were really happy with it.

Steph and Rory walked into the Pub that night, all bundled up against the cold. They found the guys at a table near the bar, surrounded, not surprisingly, by lots of the LDB group. Logan stood and leaned down to kiss her. She leaned into him, just for a few seconds, before stepping away. First public kiss, Rory thought, not considering her front yard in Stars Hollow to be public. When he went to pull her into the booth, she stepped back. "Today is the first day of your birthday week, which means today you get your first birthday present, of sorts." Others around were watching, and Rory mustered up her courage. Logan lifted an eyebrow when she started unzipping her jacket. When she took it off, she was left standing there in jeans and a red and white raglan shirt with big red letters labeling her as the FRONT OF THE LINE and then underneath it #huntzberger. He dragged her into the booth and onto his lap, and really kissed her. He kissed her until the hoots and hollers broke through his jumbled brain. "So, you like it?" Rory asked. "Um yeah, it's just like another layer of piss. I think you should wear it every day." She stared at him until she got the joke - it was like him pissing a circle around her to mark his territory. Now she actually had his name on her chest.

They hung out and talked to the group and had a few drinks and a good time. The guys gave Logan a little bit of shit for her shirt, mostly in good fun. Some of the girls told her how cute they thought it was, and a few select ones ignored her. She figured those were the ones that thought they'd been in the line.

Logan and Rory parted ways at her dorm, even though Logan tried to get her to go back home with him. She told him she'd see him at class in the morning. He kissed her and headed home.

Monday's present took a little bit of work and help from Finn. She'd designed it last week as one of her first ideas. She loved the pub sign at the bar in her mom's inn and worked with the same people to make one for Logan's dorm. When she talked to Finn about it, he'd wanted to buy it as his birthday gift to Logan. This one had H*M*C and their last names swirled into the design, with pretty wood and some lighting. It was classic, and she really liked it. So after her class with Logan in the morning, knowing he had another one right after it, she met Finn at their room and hung it over their makeshift bar. When Logan walked in a short while later, he was surprised to find Rory and Finn drinking coffee under the new sign.

He really liked the sign, and appreciated the significance of it, as he knew Finn did, which is why Finn was so intent on buying it when Rory told him about it. Alcohol and each other had gotten them through some shit. And he liked that Rory understood it, and made it happen.

After Finn and Rory took off for class, he poured himself a beer and drank it while admiring his new sign.

Monday and early Tuesday passed in a whirlwind as both he and Rory had articles due for the YDN. When they finally managed to hook up at Rory's dorm for their regular journalism meeting on Tuesday, she gave him present #3. It was an envelope. He slapped it on his hand a few times, playing with her by guessing what it was. He guessed one session with Paris' life coach and a picture of Kirk. He opened the card and read Rory's handwritten note:

Dear Logan,

Stars Hollow has its fall festival on Saturday, November 7th. I hope you'll come with me that day, and stay the night with me at the Dragonfly. It's got really big, soft beds, and a jacuzzi tub. I would be really lonely there by myself.

Happy birthday-Rory

P.S. I had Steph check the dates against your LDB stuff. It's clear.

"Ror, this is amazing. Thank you. And it actually does involve Kirk!" He leaned over and kissed her and was just starting to lean her backwards on the couch when Paris and Marty walked in.

"Do you two ever stop? Are you trying to convert Gilmore to your illicit ways, Huntzberger?"

Logan laughed out loud. "Yes, Paris. Soon I hope she'll be the star of the brothel I'm opening. She's almost ready." Rory snorted. Paris grabbed Marty, who had to that point just stood there awkwardly, and dragged him into her room. "Wonder what that's about. Surely he's not crazy enough to hook up with Paris, is he?"

"No, they're just friends. Paris is trying to convince him to join a karate class with her. Something about good energy."

"Weird. Actually, back to the LDB, I wanted to talk to you about something. We have a planned event over fall break, an out of town one. Will you come with me? Please?"

"What is it? Are you allowed to bring me?"

"It's in the Caribbean, so it should be nice and warm, which means I'd get to see you in a bikini. Mostly it'll be the LDB, but it's not restricted to members. I've never brought anyone, but I want to bring you. Will you come?"

She paused, a little uncomfortable. "Can I let you know? It sounds fun. It's just that I need to figure out if that's in the school budget. When do you need to know by?"

"Rory," he started.

"Stop - stop right there. I know you have lots of money. I know it. And I know you were about to say you'll take care of it. But I can't operate like that. So let me figure it out, okay? Please?"

He leaned back on the couch and rubbed his head, frustrated. "I know you don't care about the money, Ror. But I have it, and I use it. And I'm going to want to use some of it on you. I want to be with you when I can, and I'm going to want to take you with me sometimes when I go places. We're going to have to find a middle ground on this. And, on this one, we're taking Finn's plane and I've already got my own room, which I'd have with or without you. It costs me nothing for you to come. So, please say you'll come."

She studied him for a minute. She leaned back on the couch too, and shut her eyes for a minute. Finally, she turned to look at him. "You're right. I don't like it, but I don't want us to fight every time something like this comes up. We'll find a way to deal on this. Maybe I can sign IOUs every time we go somewhere. I can repay them when I get a job or my trust fund kicks in, whichever occurs first," she joked. "And yes, I'll come."

He hugged her to him. "I don't like arguing with you." She climbed onto his lap and hugged him back. "I don't either. I'll make it up to you by getting a really skimpy bikini."

"Blue. It needs to be blue because that's what I've been picturing in my head since I thought about asking you." At her raised eyebrow, he finished, "last month."

"Aww Logan, it's like you've been pining for me." At his raised eyebrow, she evened the playing field, "Okay, let's see. It's a long list. That night we ran into Tristan, I wished you and I were actually together, as he assumed, and I wasn't just a friend you felt needed protecting."

"The thought of that jackass being with you, even him just insinuating he'd tried to get you to be with him, made we want to put my fist in his face or through a wall. I wasn't just feeling friendly and protective, I was feeling jealous as hell."

She smiled. "Every time you walked me home, I wished you'd kiss me. Like really kiss me."

He smiled. "Every time I walked you home, I thought about kissing you, like really kissing you, but I didn't want to scare you off."

She ran her fingers through his hair and told him she was glad they finally got their shit together.

She kicked him out shortly after because she had to study for a test the next day. And she had to work on present #4.

Logan was in a handsy mood Wednesday. He had his hand on her leg, constantly on the move, the whole class. He always stopped just short of the good spots, and it left Rory more than a little fired up. She finally put her hand on his to stop the movement and whispered, "Logan." He turned his hand over to lace their fingers. He was going to drive her insane, she thought.

He was watching TV that night and figured he'd be seeing Rory soon. She hadn't given him a present yet today. He wasn't surprised when he got a text around 9:00 asking him to meet her. He walked to the semi-isolated spot on campus, hidden by trees, and found her, and his friends, sprawled out on blankets. He smiled when he saw an unopened bottle of scotch and five glasses. Rory motioned for him to sit and told him no one could go home until they drank this very fine bottle of scotch, which was a gift to him from Colin. She'd given him a party. And she and Steph wore the ridiculous party hats to prove it.

Finn, pouting, told him Rory was mean and wouldn't let them open the bottle until he got there. Logan grabbed the bottle and poured. They clinked their glasses together and drank. A few glasses in, she pulled out a bag he hadn't noticed and distributed cheeseburgers and fries that were somehow miraculously still warm. They plowed through the food and drank on. They each gave a well-intentioned toast to Logan, but the toasts all ended up being so dirty they dissolved into laughter at each one. Hitting the bottom of the bottle, Logan leaned against a tree, Rory sitting between his legs, Finn was beginning to snore, and Colin and Steph had just grabbed a blanket and disappeared into the trees. Logan thanked her for the party, thinking this one - not the bigger one Steph was throwing this weekend - would be the one he'd remember for his 21st birthday.

Feeling adventurous, Rory moved their entwined hands to rub his legs surrounding her and then brought them to her legs. Working their way up, this time he didn't skip the good spots, and her head fell back further against his chest. The making out just for the sake of making out thing was new to him, but he liked it. He picked her up and flipped her over so she straddled him. He had his hands in her hair, kissing her, and she held onto him. When she couldn't sit still any longer, she moved against him, slowly at first, driving him insane, and then eventually full out grinding. He slid his hands to her waist balancing her when she arched back, pushing her down harder, and sent them both over the edge. They broke apart laughing when they heard a loud moan not too far from them. "I think they're almost done," Logan told her. Rory, not knowing if she should be embarrassed or proud, leaned her head into his chest, but she was drunk, so she told him "I'm all wet, Logan." He banged his head back against the tree. "Jesus, Rory. You're going to kill me."

They all finally made it back to the guys' room in the middle of the night and passed out.

Thursday came with headaches. They made it through the day. Rory went to bed early, but not before she snuck in and left present #5 on his bed. She'd sneakily snapped a few pics of Logan, Colin, Finn, and Steph the night before when they'd been huddled together laughing at something. She picked a close-up of them, where they all looked so carefree and happy. She put it in a frame and wrapped it up.

She woke Friday to find Logan in bed with her with his arm around her. When he opened his eyes, she asked him, "Did you teleport over here?"

"Paris let me in. I came to thank you for the picture last night, and you were already out like a light. You looked good, so I stayed."

"Hmm, surprise Logan. I like it. But we've got class in less than an hour. I've got to shower." When he raised an eyebrow, she continued, "which I'm doing alone." He grinned. "Here, I was going to drop that bag at your room on the way to class. It's present #6. Take it with you, and I hope you'll wear it today." She batted her eyelashes at him. He looked at her like she was setting him up. "Take it and go!" She pushed him out the door, doing an internal happy dance.

She laughed when he walked into class layered up with long sleeved Under Armour and his new T-shirt over it. It was perfect - navy with white lettering announcing, "My girlfriend thinks I'm hot!" Sheesh, he sure was, and she told him so. He just kissed her head and smiled. And, of course, today they got called up to the front of the class to discuss some journalistic theory. The class laughed seeing his shirt, and Logan took it in good natured stride. Professor Kelly looked at him a little funny, and he just pointed to Rory.

He was keenly aware that they hadn't been out alone since they officially started dating, so he was glad when she agreed to go to dinner with him that night. They agreed on Italian, and he told her he'd make reservations at a popular restaurant not too far away. She rolled her eyes, knowing someone else would get bumped when a Huntzberger called at the last minute. He picked her up and kissed her within an inch of her life when he saw her, even though her dress was modest by any standard. They drank wine, and she ate the fattiest items on the menu, moaning her way through the cheesy covered goodness. They talked about the guys' plans for later that night, as Logan, Finn, and Colin were joining some of the other LDB guys in some sort of vaguely described event. Rory joked that he should not call her if he got arrested, but really hoped it didn't come to that. They also talked about Steph's party the next night. Logan had told her about his costume – a fighter pilot like in Top Gun – and maybe she swooned a little at the thought, but she refused to tell him about hers. She wanted it to be a surprise, but she did tell him it was present #7 and she thought he'd like it.

Logan was constantly amazed how easy it was with Rory. Dinner was great. They ate good food and had fun. As they were leaving, she was walking and talking to him about her lunch with Colin today in the cafeteria. Some poor girl tripped and dumped a plate of macaroni on him, and she was waving her arms mimicking what Colin had done when it landed on his shoulders. She'd loved it and couldn't stop laughing then and now. He was so engrossed in her, and her story, that he almost didn't hear his name being called as they walked by a table.

"Logan."

He looked over and saw his parents, with a couple he didn't know. Automatically, he put his hand on Rory's waist and stood next to her. When his dad stood, he shook his hand and bent down to kiss his mom's cheek. He introduced Rory and waited for his parents to make the other introductions. Etiquette had been ingrained into him from a young age. When they introduced the other man as a columnist at the New York Times, Rory engaged and told him how much she enjoyed his column from earlier in the week. He talked to his parents, while he half-listened to Rory's conversation with the guy. He could tell Mitchum was also listening and raised his eyebrow at Logan. What he didn't know was that Mitchum, as an inactive member of the LDB, had heard the tale of Logan and his guest at the scaffold event, which had been spun into nearly epic proportions. It seemed his son had ventured beyond the casual fling and found someone with more than half a brain.

Before they left, Mitchum asked him to come to dinner the following Monday, so he could go over and sign some documents. He didn't mention Logan's birthday, and Logan didn't expect him to. He agreed, and was a little surprised when Mitchum suggested he bring Rory with him. Logan looked at Rory, and Rory, a little uncomfortable, agreed that it sounded lovely. He knew, and she knew, that it sounded anything but lovely, but figured they'd go and make the most of it.

It wasn't until they were in the car a few minutes later that Rory asked what that was all about. Logan hesitated, knowing Rory hated the money talk, but finally told her that he needed to sign some trust documents because, as of his 21st birthday tomorrow, he'd own 20% of his grandfather's 49% interest in HPG. Rory stared at him, aghast. Trying to lighten the mood, he told her now he could afford to take her on more trips. She rubbed the sides of her head, trying to loosen the building pressure. When he took her hand as he drove, she leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Thank you for tonight, Logan. I had a great time." He squeezed her hand.


	13. Chapter 13

Rory went to bed early, looking forward to a lazy Saturday. The guys were spending Logan's birthday planted in front of the TV watching college football, drinking beer, and eating barbeque, and she was going to relax and read her new book. She was relieved when she woke up Saturday morning, and didn't have a "please come bail me out" message from Logan.

Rory got herself into her costume Saturday night, but it was no easy feat. The shirt and jacket were tighter than she remembered, and the skirt! She hoped she didn't have to bend over for anything. At least she had stockings for some coverage, and she'd managed to get the garters all hooked right. She got the white shirt buttoned, although she was a little concerned the buttons might pop off. It wasn't long enough to tuck in, barely hitting the top of her skirt, unless she raised her arms, in which case it showed inches of her stomach. She tugged the jacket on, and it too fit like a glove only serving to emphasize she'd outgrow the uniform years ago. She skipped the knee socks and slid into high navy heels. She pulled her hair up into a tight ponytail and put on just a little bit of makeup. Looking at herself in the mirror, she could see her navy blue bra through the stretched shirt, which made her look twice as busty as normal. Steph had assured her that added to the look. She didn't know if she could do this and wrapped herself up in her winter jacket to hide it at least for now.

Logan had gone over early to help Steph, and Rory had told him she and Paris would walk over together. Paris, eschewing Halloween, but wanting to go to what should be the party of the weekend, was dressed as a witch. Rory thought Logan would get a kick out of that and could already hear the Finn jokes about her riding his broom.

Logan was talking to Finn, Colin, and their LDB friends Ben and Seth, of the scaffold harness, when he heard Finn mutter, "Holy fuck." Grabbing his beer off the bar, he turned to see what caught Finn's attention. He almost dropped his cup. Rory stood by the door, talking to Steph. Steph had taken her jacket and walked towards Logan with a shit-eating grin on her face. Steph nudged him, "Snap out of it, Huntz. You need to go see her." When he just continued to stare, she nudged him harder. "And, Logan, if you manage to get your shit together and actually talk to your girlfriend tonight, you're in for a surprise later. What's under that get up is my birthday gift to you, and it's spectacular." She kissed his cheek and walked away, with him still mostly oblivious.

Rory waved to him, and he finally started moving towards her. She was poured into her prep school uniform, and no high school girl ever looked as sexy as she did. Her legs were miles long, her stomach was smooth, and her chest was near busting through the seams of that white shirt.

"Hey Ace. Sorry it took me a minute. I don't know what to do here. I feel like I may lose control if I touch you. God, Rory."

"Happy birthday, Logan." She reached up and pulled him down to kiss him, purposely keeping it light. She studied his Maverick uniform, or maybe more Iceman uniform, and loved the aviator glasses on his head, "You look so cute. I never much considered the man in uniform thing, but this really does it for me." She ran her hand up his chest and pulled the zipper down a little. He had his new shirt on under it. She smiled, and reached up to kiss him again. "She really does."

They broke apart when they heard whistles and catcalls. Steph came over to tell them she signed them up for the flip cup tournament and dragged them towards the tables set up in the center of the room. Steph had told her earlier that the guys wanted to do this since it was Logan's birthday. She assumed she wouldn't be playing because she also knew they played for money, she'd never played, and she was generally uncoordinated. Eight teams, $125 a team, $1,000 pot.

"You're with us, Rory," Steph said.

"Um, that's a bad idea. I've never played before. I can watch, and cheer you on. Actually, I kind of have the cheerleader vibe going on right now so that's probably best."

"Nope," Colin said. "We changed the rules for tonight. Five person teams instead of four because we've got you now. Welcome to Team Huntz, since it's his birthday."

Finn piped in, "Dude, she's Team Huntz every day."

"Well, I do have my very own Huntzberger shirt. But, seriously guys. I've never done this. I'll make you lose."

Logan had his arm around her, "Don't worry about it. If we lose, we lose."

Steph turned the music down, stuck a paper to the wall with the brackets, and announced the first round, which was them.

They lined her up last, after Finn. Rory looked around at all the people in the room, most of whom were watching. She bit her lip, nervous. As Colin started, Finn put his arm around her, "See, now Colin likes to drink and flip, drink and flip." They watched him do all four, missing one flip on the first time, but otherwise finishing fast. Right after Colin flipped the last cup, Steph started. Colin came down towards Rory. He asked, "Excited?" "Little nervous," she told him. He stood behind her and made her arms move up and down towards her mouth like a puppet drinking. "Like this. Got it?" She turned and glared at him, "You keep doing that, Colin, and my shirt is gonna bust open. My 20-year old boobs are bigger than my 16-year old boobs were, and these buttons are holding on by a thread." As Steph worked on her last cup, Logan, without looking up, said, "If her shirt busts open, McCrae, I'm going to beat your ass." Colin gave him the finger. Finn, resuming teaching mode, "See, your boy does it different. He drinks all four and then flips all four." Logan rolled through fast. Steph came down to hug her. "Ignore the peanut gallery, they get a little competitive." As Finn went, Logan came towards her. "Glad to see you're still clothed." She rolled her eyes. He asked, "Ready?"

"You're making me nervous."

"Here you go."

She went with Logan's method. She drank, not as fast as him, but got through them. She flipped the first two at the same time, both landed, and did the second two the same way. They went nuts.

They won by two cups. Logan spun her around and kissed her. The rest of them were jumping on each other, and Rory laughed as she was pulled into the mix. Steph's roommate yelled at them, and snapped a picture of the five of them all jumbled up and laughing.

Finn told Logan. "Your girlfriend is a ringer!" When he put his arms around her and squeezed her in a hug, Logan, Colin, and Steph all yelled, "Watch her shirt!"

While the next round went, they asked her about her cup flipping. "You met my mom and saw where I live. Our town has an annual carnival, and there's always a cup flipping contest. My mom and I practiced a lot. She's the real ringer." They all stared at her like she was crazy.

She excused herself to hit the restroom. She stood waiting outside the door, not paying much attention until she realized the two girls in the hall were talking about her. Well really one was talking about her. The other just stood there. "So she fucks Logan and now they all love her? Did you see that in there? Unbelievable. And is she really wearing a Chilton uniform? Did she even go to Chilton?" When the girl stormed off, not noticing Rory five feet away, the other girl turned the corner and saw Rory. "Um, hi. I'm Juliet. Sorry about that. Kelly is drunk. And, well, jealous as hell. Ignore her."

So this was Finn's Juliet, she thought. Interesting. "Hi. I'm Rory. She's jealous that I'm with Logan? She seemed really mad, inordinately so."

"She's jealous of it all. You. Logan. Their group. Like I said, ignore her."

When she got back to them, she tried to shake it off. She must've looked a little upset still, because Logan asked her if she was okay. "Fine. Just ran into one of your adoring fans."

"What? Did someone do something to you?" They all looked at her.

"No. Really. I ran into a girl whose pissed because you all like me, but says you only like me because I'm - quote - fucking Logan, and I probably didn't even go to Chilton," nodding towards her jacket. "It's fine. Just threw me for a minute."

Logan looked pissed, but hugged her to him. He told her, "You know that's not true, right?" She nodded. "You want me to go beat her up?" She laughed and shook her head. "No, I'm good."

Steph wanted to know who it was because she was going to "kick her ass out." Rory told her, but made her promise not to do anything.

They got through the next round, too. Rory's double flip only worked once that time, but she got them both over in time to beat the other team.

While they were waiting on the other bracket to finish for the final round, Logan pulled Rory into Steph's room. He sat her down on Steph's desk and stood between her legs, playing with her pony tail. "I can't believe you wore this."

"You don't turn 21 everyday, Huntzberger. I'm glad you like it. I think you're going to like what's under it more, though. It's Steph-approved. She bought it for you. For your birthday. I think it ups my game considerably. Check this out."

She brought his hands to her legs and moved them up her stockings under her skirt. When he felt the garters and then bare skin, he leaned into her neck and groaned. "Rory, you're my fantasy." He pulled back and kissed her.

She put her hand on his face and smiled at him. "You're mine too. And tonight I want you to show me what it's all about. Please?"

He paused. "Rory. I told you, we go at your pace."

"I know. And I'm ready." She grinned at him, "So, Huntzberger, let's go play flip cup, and get this show on the road." She hopped up. "Oh, I got the birth control shot, but it's not fully effective for another week or so. Hope you've got some condoms." He grinned back at her. "Maybe I do."

They kept their same order since it had worked so far. The other team was mostly LDB'ers so there was a lot of heckling before it started. After a few minutes of good natured insults, Logan called it. "Let's play." Rory snorted, finding it funny that he was suddenly in a hurry. He smiled at her.

Someone yelled "go" and the game started. Colin rolled through even with his opponent, Steph picked up a lead, as did Logan, Finn fumbled slightly, and Rory got her double flip to work. They won by seconds.

Once the excitement died down, Logan and Rory thanked Steph for the party and said goodbye. Steph gave them a knowing look, hugged them, and pushed them out the door.

Laughing, Logan took Rory's hand as they walked across campus towards his place. "So, are you sure about this?"

"Yes, Logan. I'm sure."

"Nervous?"

"Nope."

He looked over at her. "Really? Because I'm kind of nervous."

She snorted. "I'm sure."

"No, really. I'm nervous."

She stared at him, as they walked. "What are you nervous about?"

He thought about it for a second. "This. It's never mattered before. This matters."

She squeezed his hand and let it go, putting her arm through his arm and moving closer to him. "Yeah, it does." They walked in silence for another few minutes.

"Hey Rory." She looked up at him, meeting his eyes. "I love you."

Her heart stopped for a second as she stared at him, and then picked up double time. Her smile bloomed slowly. "Hey Logan." He smiled at her, feeling good about where this was going. "I love you, too."

The simplicity of it evened Logan out. He loved her, she loved him.

He kissed her and, when it became more, he let her go and practically dragged her the last few feet to his dorm. He picked her up in the hallway when she almost stumbled, and she wrapped her legs around him. With one hand on her ass to hold her up, he dug in his pocket for the key, while she unzipped the front of his flight suit and kissed his neck. "God, Rory. We have to get in this door. Now." Finally getting it open, he kicked it closed behind them and headed to his room. She took out her ponytail and shook out her hair, and tore off her jacket. "Ror, let me do it. I want my hands on you."

He stood her up in front of him and unwrapped his present slowly, focusing on each part as he went. He loved the little sounds she made as he worked his way down her body, and he took his time. It wasn't until he stepped back and saw her, eyes slightly dazed, in nothing but a navy blue bra and matching barely-there underwear, garter belt, stockings and heels, that he felt his control slip. Her legs, holy shit her legs. "You are so sexy, Rory." She blushed, and moaned when he ran his hand down her hip toward the garter belt. He knelt and went to work on the shoes and stockings, unhooking them and rolling them down, his mouth following his hands. When she started shaking, he picked her back up and laid her on the bed. This is what he dreamed of. Her hair was spread out over his pillow and she was reaching for him. He leaned in to kiss her. "Logan." She pushed the suit off his shoulders. "Catch up." He stood, and stripped down to his boxers, while she watched leaning back on her elbows. He crawled up, stopping at her hips to pull the garter belt down and over her legs. He really liked her legs, and spent some time working his way back up, at which point he did the same to her underwear.

She closed her eyes and held her breath as he pulled her underwear off. She was surprised when his mouth closed over her, and half screamed and almost arched off the bed, giving him better access. She moaned and writhed until, seconds later, she exploded.

She looked at his grinning face, and melted a little. She pulled him up to her, ran her hands through his hair, and kissed him. Pushing him to flip him over, she straddled him. His hands immediately went for her bra. "Hands down, Huntzberger. My turn." She reached behind and unhooked it, and let it slide down. "Rory."

She scooted down, running her hands over his chest and down over his abs and the really sexy V they made. She put her mouth on that V and licked, liking his moan. Hesitantly, she put her thumbs on the sides of his boxers and tugged down. She bit her lip when she got them all the way down and off. She lightly ran her fingers over him, and he groaned.

He couldn't take his eyes off of her as she looked at him and touched him. He wanted her to do what she wanted, but he also knew he had to keep himself together enough to finish this. Her first time was important, and he was going to get it right. When she bent over and put her mouth on him, he fisted his hand in the sheet but kept his eyes on her. For all of ten seconds.

He retook control, flipping her back over. "Hey, I liked that," she told him running her hands down his chest.

He laughed, "Yeah, me too. But this time, just this once, I'm taking over here. I need you. I need to be inside you." He hopped up to go in search of a condom. He came back a second later, and she watched him put it on and then reached for him again. A little while later, when he had her hands by her head, wrapped in his, and was moving inside her, they locked eyes and he told her he loved her right before they both lost all coherent thought.

They were tangled up, but neither moved. "I can sort of understand the line thing now. I'd wait in a line for that, too." She laughed when he winced. "You're really good at this." She looked at him closer. "Are you blushing? I think you might be blushing. God, I love you Logan."

He smiled at her, at that. "You feel okay?"

"I feel fantastic," she stretched. "Hmm...maybe a little sore. But overall, I feel fantastic."

"Some body you've got there, Ace."

"You too. I like these," she said, running her hand over his abs.

"You've got this mark, right here," he told her, palming the side of her breast. She looked down.

"Logan! Again? People are going to think I'm being abused!"

He smirked at her, "Well, Rory, you see, I'm hoping I'm the only that's going to be seeing you like this. If someone else gets a look at that, I think we've got a problem."

"You are the only one whose ever seen me like this." She kissed him.

He dragged her into the shower with him. They were in there for a really long time.


	14. Chapter 14

When they woke up in the morning, Rory knew something was wrong. She told him, "I'm going to go ahead and apologize now. Before I even look. I'm so sorry. I should have paid closer attention to dates."

At his confused look, she told him she was pretty sure she got her period after they fell asleep. He laughed. "Okay. So we're heading back to the shower?"

"Yep. This is mortifying."

Shrugging, he picked her up, rolled out of bed, and put them in the shower. Ten minutes later they were cleaned up, Logan had raided Colin's bathroom for one of Steph's tampons, and Rory was in one of his t-shirts and her skirt. She looked at herself. "I think this might officially be a walk of shame." When he smiled, she told him, "Not that I'm ashamed. But geez - can I be any more obvious?"

Logan sent out a text about brunch, and they walked over to Rory's for her to change. Paris was up and grumbling about a headache. Apparently she'd stayed at the party, late, and had a spinning head now. "But you two sure look all bright eyed and bushy tailed."

Logan loved messing with her. "Well, you know, Paris, I find spending a solid ten hours a night in bed keeps me chipper."

"How many of those hours are sleeping, Huntzberger?" He grinned at her.

Steph, Colin, and Finn rolled in 5 minutes late. Finn ordered a Bloody Mary as soon as he sat down.

He looked at Rory. And at Logan. "You two look awfully cheery." He yelped ouch, and looked at Steph, who'd kicked him under the table. "What the hell? When have we ever had limits? We talked about you and Colin ad nauseam at the beginning. And you all sure as shit never let me off the hook. Are we changing now because Rory's with us?" Colin and Logan smiled watching the two of them.

Rory jumped in. "I don't want you to change anything because of me. Do what you'd normally do."

"See?" He told Steph. He smiled at Rory, and said "So?"

Rory looked at Logan, who just smiled and nodded. Rory leaned towards Finn, "So, Logan loves me."

He snorted, "I could have told you that a month ago. You led him on a merry chase. It was fun to watch."

Rory told him, "He was pining for me." Finn and Colin hooted with laughter. Steph smiled, knowing it was true. She would wait to get Rory alone to talk about the rest, because while they did share most of their lives, they did have limits about some things, despite Finn's earlier comment.

Brunch was fun. They talked about their upcoming trip to Antigua. Steph was especially excited Rory was coming. In fact, she was so excited she volunteered to join Rory and Emily shopping after brunch. Emily had been so pleased when Rory told her she was going on a LDB trip, having fond memories of her LDB trips with Richard 40 years ago, she offered to take Rory shopping for clothes before the trip. Emily was a rockstar shopper. They were meeting that afternoon.

Steph waited until they were alone in the car on their way to meet Emily. "Well? Care to share? You and Logan?"

Rory blushed a little. "What do you want to know? It was good. Really good. I don't have any way to compare it, but I think Logan's probably pretty good at it."

Steph laughed. "Yeah, I think that's a safe bet. So? Come on. How'd it start? Details."

Rory laughed. She started slow, more than a little embarrassed and unsure about sharing. But Steph made it easy. She told her about him telling her he loved her, her saying it back, him stripping her down to the lingerie, which she assured Steph was a big hit. She told her about Logan's mouth, and nearly shuddered, and about having him over her. She told her about the shower, and her period. Steph loved it. All of it. She knew Logan would get it right, and made a mental note to hug him when she saw him again.

Steph told her they'd probably be spending a lot of time in the shower this week. At Rory's blank look, Steph laughed and explained. Actually, she figured Logan would be equally as clueless because this situation would never have arisen in his past life. Rory blushed again, and put her head against the window.

Emily was happy to have Steph along, and the two of them circled Rory like twin tornadoes. They had taste and style. Rory was shocked when Emily approved some very small bikinis Steph found. She got beach wraps, shorts, halters, sundresses, and a more formal dress Steph told her she'd need, and shoes to match all of it. She fell onto her bed a few hours later surrounded by bags. And promptly fell asleep.

Steph went right to the guys' dorm after she dropped Rory. She found Logan in the kitchen and hugged him. "Good job, Huntz." He laughed, having no idea what she was talking about. She went on, "Seriously, we're all so jaded and she's not, and she was so hesitant to share, but I got some of it out of her, and, no shit, I might have swooned and/or cried if I hadn't steeled myself against it. So good job, Huntz. I love you." She kissed his cheek, and went off looking for Colin.

Logan shook his head. He loved Steph, and he was glad she and Rory got along. Life would be very hard if they didn't. And Colin and Finn had had questions too, so he wasn't surprised Steph had hit Rory up for information. He'd gone light on details to the guys, not sure how much Rory would be comfortable with sharing. He did tell them he'd been nervous, because of the virgin thing, and they thought that was funny. But they both readily admitted they wouldn't want that pressure.

When Rory woke up, she had a text from Logan asking how the shopping trip went. She texted back.

Rory: "Hey, Steph and Grandma wore me out shopping - I took a nap. They have approved my Antigua wardrobe. I'm going to be beach vacation Barbie."

Logan: "Tell me about the bikini."

Rory: "One is blue."

Logan: "Mission accomplished."

Rory: "And you know that conversation about no one else seeing that mark?"

Logan: "Yes"

Rory: "You're going to have to be careful until after this trip - lots of skin is gonna be on display."

Logan: "Are you sleeping over tonight?"

Rory: "Not sure."

Logan: "Will you sleep over tonight?"

Rory: "You do remember how we woke up today, don't you?"

Logan: "Yeah. Doesn't bother me. Just want you with me."

Rory: "Sheesh. Okay."

Logan: "Bring clothes and whatever else you need. You can leave some of it here."

Rory: "You're a pushy boyfriend."

Logan: "There's a statement never before made to me."

Rory: "I know. I like it. I've got to call my mom because we haven't talked in a while. Then I'll head over."

Logan: "I love you."

Rory: "Logan. I love you too."

She called her mom with her news. Lorelai took it well, and told her she'd been expecting Rory's call since she met Logan. She was happy for her, and Rory told her a little bit about it. Not nearly as many details as she told Steph, but enough so Lorelai knew it was good and she was safe and happy. She was excited they were coming to Stars Hollow that weekend, and Rory was too.

After, she packed a bag. She didn't know what to bring. What she should leave there. She ended up packing a little bit of everything. And her school stuff for tomorrow. It was weird, but not weird, she thought as she walked to his dorm.

Logan and Finn were eating pizza when she got there. She ate too, and listened to Finn describe one of his midterm assignments. Finn, being a Morgan, was a finance major. And fortunately for Finn, it came relatively easy to him because he generally put little effort into it. She looked over his shoulder at his laptop and cringed. It was like Greek.

She and Logan worked quietly on their own stuff for a little while. Finished, she went and changed into her pajamas. When she came back out and sat on the couch, Logan looked up from his laptop and grinned. This time she wore pale blue singing sheep pants and a short pink t-shirt. "Dancing cows were dirty?"

"You got a problem with my pajamas, Huntzberger?"

"Nope."

Finn looked up. "Nice pants, Gilmore. Might be the first time Huntz gets a hard on looking at sheep." Rory laughed. Logan flicked him off.

Colin came in holding a bowl of ice cream. At Rory's look, knowing her eating habits, he said, "Ice cream social - common room down the hall."

Rory was amazed. "Are you kidding me? You guys have ice cream socials? What are you? Five? And, crap. We don't have ice cream socials. I want ice cream." But she looked down at her pajamas and frowned.

Logan stood. "Come on, Ace. You and your sheep will be fine."

She grabbed flip flops and followed Logan and Finn out. Colin wasn't kidding. There was lots of ice cream stuff. She and Finn happily worked their way through the tables. She told him, "I'm dumping Paris and moving to this dorm."

Bowl full, she looked up and saw Logan leaning against a couch surrounded by a few women. Rory nudged Finn and pointed that way. He told her they could have some fun messing with them. She shook her head, resigned to being nice to women who wanted Logan. Even at an ice cream social. She could hardly blame them. Although maybe she could blame the one who leaned against the couch next to him and kept inching closer.

As they approached, he caught the sparkle in her eyes. She took a bite of ice cream and licked the spoon. "Want a bite?" He followed her tongue, and then looked in her bowl and winced, "Ace."

Logan introduced them all, starting with his "girlfriend" Rory. She smiled at them, ate, and looked around. "So do you know all these people? Play hopscotch on Mondays after the ice cream socials on Sundays?"

Finn burst out laughing. "It's a junior dorm. Slightly different crowd. Not sure how we got here."

"I'm sure you guys liven it up." She shivered. Logan pulled her closer to him and put his hand on her back just under her t-shirt. He was so warm and she leaned in. "Winter blows."

"Pretty sure it's the quart of ice cream you're eating and not the weather making you cold."

"Smartass."

He took her ice cream and handed it to Finn. "Hey," she said. He pulled his hoodie off, and pulled it down over her head. "Hmm, it's all warm. Thanks." She got her ice cream back and smiled at them.

At that point, the other women mumbled something and excused themselves. "Well, that was fun. Good ice cream," Rory said.

Later that night, Logan climbed into bed with her. "Night, Ace." He leaned over to kiss her, and leaned further over when she deepened it. Within seconds, he was on top of her, and she was grabbing his ass to pull him tighter to her.

"Shower," she got out when he lifted his mouth. "We can do this in the shower. If you want."

Getting it, he dragged her into his bathroom. She flung her clothes off, tossing them on the floor, and did what she needed to do while he went to grab a condom. Five minutes later he had her wrapped around him and was pounding her into the shower wall. She bit down on his shoulder trying to stay quiet. Turned out he was the one that couldn't stay quiet, ending with him semi-yelling her name.

Cleaned up and back in bed, Rory was asleep in minutes. Logan went out to get a water, and found Finn and Colin on the couch staring at him. All three burst out in laughter. Colin told him, "Dude, we're going to need soundproof walls if this gets worse - it's only Day 2."

He flopped down next to them. "That loud?" They nodded. He rubbed his hands over his face. "She touches me, and I lose my mind."

Rory was running around her room. They were due at the Huntzbergers for dinner in less than an hour, and Logan would be there any minute. She wasn't ready, and she was nervous. She wore a black dress and matching sweater, and was working on putting her hair up.

It was doubly nerve wracking for her because Mitchum Huntzberger was HPG for crying out loud, but he was also Logan's dad. What if this didn't go well? What if his parents hated her? They'd invited her, but she'd been standing right there. Ugh.

That's how Logan found her. She'd worked herself up into a tizzy, and she was wide-eyed when she opened the door to him. "What if they don't like me?"

He smiled, "I'm pretty sure they don't even like me. I wouldn't worry about it. I like you. A lot." She laughed. "Ready?"

They pulled up to a mansion that dwarfed the Gilmore mansion. "Geez, Logan. You lived here?"

"Yep. Lived, being the key word. Never again."

He took her hand as they walked to the door and held onto it as they followed a maid into a sitting room off the dining room, where his parents and an older man sat. Logan introduced her to his grandfather, William Huntzberger.

His grandfather studied them throughout dinner. This was the first women Logan had brought home, ever. He knew about his grandson's exploits, and had enjoyed hearing about them, even when Mitchum had been in full ranting mode. He knew all too well that life changed when school ended and the real world began. Logan was going to need solid backup in the coming years as he took on Mitchum. He saw a united front with Logan and Rory, and was glad for it.

When dinner ended, Mitchum suggested he, Logan and William go to his study to deal with the trust papers. Rory and Shira returned to the sitting room for coffee. Shira told her how they were leaving for London the following week and wouldn't be back until after the new year, so she was busy with packing and planning. Rory made appropriate comments, but was thinking how they just up and left Logan during the holidays. Had they done that when he was young? The men finally returned, and Logan told them Rory had early classes so they made their exit.

Once safely in his SUV, she leaned over and kissed him. "We made it out unscathed." He laughed. "Yeah. Thanks for coming and spending a night with the pod people."

"I kind of liked your grandfather."

He smiled, "He liked you. Told me I chose well. I told him I thought so, especially since you were so good in the shower."

"Logan!"

"But really, he did say I chose well. And I did agree."

"What changes for you now?"

"I get more crap in the mail, I get more money, I guess, and I have to attend some meetings. I can have my grandfather vote for me, if I want, but I'll probably do it."

"Did you know your parents are leaving for two months next week?"

He rolled his eyes. "They must have forgot to send me their schedule. Where are they going?"

"London."

"Huh."

"So that means I get you for all the holidays, right? Because they're waiving their rights."

"I'd have dumped them for you anyways." A minute later, "Where am I taking you? Your place or mine?"

"What do you think? Do you think we spend too much time together? Like we'll get sick of each other? Are Finn and Colin tired of me being at your place?"

He looked over at her while he drove, "I think you should come home with me. No, I don't think we spend too much time together, I'm not going to get sick of you, and Finn and Colin are fine."

"If you're sure."

"You have what you need?"

"Yep. That bag I left has all kinds of stuff in it."

"Good."

"Ever think you'd be 21, in college, and have a girlfriend and tampons under your sink?"

"Nope. But I like it." He parked outside his dorm and came to her side to open her door.

"I love you, Logan."

He kissed her before she climbed out. "I love you, too, Ror. I don't know what I did without you."


	15. Chapter 15

Rory stopped by her room in the morning on the way to class to grab her backpack, and found Paris and Doyle asleep on the couch - naked! She didn't know whether to sneak back out, or get into her room. She was in limbo, and tip toed into her room but then was stuck when she heard movement one minute later. Please just go to Paris' room, she thought. Paris and Doyle?! Why are they naked together? How'd they even meet?

Running out of time, she stuck her head out and made a run for it even though they were still out there. "I'm not looking," she told them, keeping her eyes averted. "I'm leaving."

Once she hit her seat in class, she texted Logan, who was probably just getting back from his run. "We can never, ever again use my couch."

Ten minutes into class, he wrote back. "Don't ruin that couch for me. I have good memories of us on that couch, and I had a lot of fantasies about doing things to you on that couch."

"Well maybe then we can use some of that HPG money to have it sterilized and an exorcism performed on it."

"Okay - tell me."

"Paris and Doyle - naked - together - my couch."

"Rory"

"Yep"

That afternoon, Paris was yelling at Rory for the morning. Rory told her it wasn't her fault they were naked on the couch, in a common room! "Like you and Huntzberger aren't all over each other constantly."

"What? First, we've never been naked on that couch. Or anywhere else someone could see us. And second, Doyle isn't Logan! We could sell tickets and make a fortune if Logan was on that couch naked!"

"Oh great, Gilmore. Now we're operating on a superficial level? Your boyfriend is hotter than mine?"

"He's your boyfriend?"

"Well, no. But he could be. One day."

"Okay, look. You're a big girl, Paris. All I'm saying is, it's not my fault I saw what I saw. It's a common room! Take your naked time to a room that's not common. Or, I don't know, use a blanket! But don't get mad when someone walks into a common room."

"Okay. Fair enough."

"So, how'd you meet Doyle?"

"Logan's party. You guys left pretty early. He came later."

"Huh. Okay. And you like each other?"

"I think so. We went out last night."

"I'm going to have a hard time looking him in the face at the paper tomorrow. All I'll see is his ass in the air."

Paris laughed. "Yeah, well. Sorry about that." Rory told her she was going to Stars Hollow this Saturday for the day and night, and wouldn't be back til Sunday afternoon, so she and Doyle could go crazy. She also told her she'd be gone all of fall break. God knew what she and Doyle could do to the room with a week alone. She shuttered at the thought. But she wanted Paris to be happy.

Logan insisted on joining Rory at the YDN Wednesday, because he was an ass and wanted to see Doyle's reaction to Rory. "Are you at least going to act like you're here to do something productive?"

"Nope." He sat back at his desk, spinning a pencil, and grinned at her. Seeing movement from Doyle's office, he said, "Here we go."

Doyle made a beeline for her, and she mentally winced. "I didn't know Paris was your roommate when I met her."

"You can date Paris, Doyle. It's fine."

"I don't like the awkward feeling I have knowing you saw me naked."

"I don't either, Doyle. But all I did was walk into a common room. I didn't ask to see you naked."

"I don't suppose you want to make us even?"

"What?"

"You saw me naked."

"Are you insane?"

"Fair is fair."

"Fairness has nothing to do with this."

"I don't even want to see you naked, but I don't like you having the advantage."

"Seeing you naked did not give me any advantage. Trust me."

"It did."

"This is a ridiculous conversation. The answer is no."

"Do you see another alternative?"

"Let it go. I'm trying to."

"I can't."

"You're being irrational."

"Probably."

Taking a different tact, "Doyle, have you met my boyfriend? You want to ask him about seeing me naked? I'd probably start with you don't really want to see me naked, but feel like you have to, to make things less awkward between us."

"You have a boyfriend?"

"Do you live under a rock?"

"Sometimes. Laser focus."

"Well, turn around. You can ask him." Doyle turned, and saw Logan sitting there and instantly went white.

Amused, Logan told him, "The answer is still no."

Following Doyle's hasty departure, Rory and Logan left too. They were going to eat dinner at the Pub. "I don't know whether to be offended that he asked to see me naked or that he didn't really want to see me naked. That was very Seinfeld-esque."

"He doesn't know what he's missing," he squeezed her hand. "But yeah, that was something. I couldn't even muster up any jealousy there. That's his solution? You saw me, so I see you."

"He's an odd little man."

"And Paris likes him."

"Maybe it's a match made in heaven."

Saturday morning came, and Rory was excited to go home. She and Logan got to Stars Hollow in time for lunch at Luke's. Lorelai came flying in, hugging Rory. "You're here! I missed you. Hi Logan. You came back for Stars Hollow round two! You deserve a medal."

"Hi Lorelai. Thanks for having us. Rory has been talking about this all week. And I'm looking forward to the cup flipping contest. She won us $1,000 the other night with her skills. She says you're better."

"I have so many things to be proud about with Rory. Chilton valedictorian, Yale student, beer flip cup champion. Was there a trophy, too?"

Rory laughed, "No trophy. Just pride. And I guess $1,000."

They talked for a little bit. "Come on, babe. Finish up so we can get you checked in to your room, and you guys can hit the carnival."' She paused, "Yep, that felt as weird as I expected it to. I'm checking my daughter and her boyfriend into a room together. I'm going to need a lot of Miss Patty's punch tonight."

They drove to the Dragonfly. While Logan parked and grabbed their bags, Lorelai gave Rory the keys to the bungalow. "Mom, just give us a regular room."

"Nope. It's open by sheer coincidence, so you get it. I'm not ready to reserve the honeymoon suite for my daughter, but she can use it since it's open." She hugged her. "Go. I'll see you in town."

Rory led Logan to the bungalow. He raised his eyebrow. "She's doing better with this than I expected. She'll be drunk in an hour. Miss Patty's punch packs a punch, just FYI. Here we are."

It was a large suite, off on its own. It did in fact have a big soft bed and a jacuzzi tub. Logan looked at the bed. "What time do we need to leave?"

They walked into town an hour later, holding hands. Rory was glowing, and Logan didn't have the heart to tell her it was really obvious how they'd just spent the last little while. He hoped Lorelai got a good start on the punch.

They turned the corner into the town square and almost ran into a guy and little girl. "Dean," Rory said. "Hi, Clara." She introduced them all.

Logan had heard a little about Dean from Rory. First boyfriend, now married. Dean seemed to be a nice enough guy, if not entirely over Rory based on how he looked at her. He wondered idly how much the wife knew. They talked for a few minutes and then went their separate ways. Rory smiled at Logan and then kissed him. At his look, she told him, "For being you. Because you being you makes it so easy for me to see what I feel for you is so much bigger than anything else in my life, then or now."

He kissed her, slow and long, and when he finally let her up, he whispered, "I love you, Rory. You're everything."

Lorelai stood at Miss Patty's with Luke, and watched them from across the square. They were in love. Real love. She was happy, she was, even if her heart broke a little because she knew Logan had taken her place as the most important person in Rory's world.

They went to the carnival. They played cheesy games, and she ate fatty carnival food. When it came time for the cup flipping, they watched in awe as Lorelai tore through the competition. She went around a whole table in the time others did a handful.

Finally, they walked back to the inn. They made love in the tub, in the bed, and in the shower, loudly, because they could. It was a great room.

They had a late breakfast with Lorelai at Luke's before heading back to Yale. Rory and Lorelai discussed Thanksgiving plans, which were lighter now that the Kims had their falling out. Logan looked mildly disgusted at the prospect of eating Thanksgiving dinner three times in one day. He told Rory they'd fast in Antigua on the days leading up to Thanksgiving. She called him an amateur and rolled her eyes.

The next two weeks of school flew by. Paris and Doyle had become an item. Doyle tried a couple times to get a look at Rory in their dorm. One day he opened Rory's bedroom door and found Logan instead. Logan, no longer finding the humor in it, told Doyle it was over and he needed to stop. Doyle, feeling intimated by the sight of Logan in just his boxer shorts, and probably a little inadequate, nodded.


	16. Chapter 16

On the Friday morning before Thanksgiving, they loaded up onto the Morgan plane. Rory had never been on a private plane, and looked around in awe. They landed in Antigua after lunch, to hot sun and turquoise blue water just feet away. They piled into the rented SUV and made the short trek to the resort. The LDB had rented out the whole resort, and they each had rooms that opened directly onto the resort's private beach.

"Time for that bikini, Ace."

She put on the blue one and skipped the coverups, for now. She had a very light tan, thanks to Steph dragging her out earlier in the week to a spray tan place, and the blue popped against her eyes. She grabbed her sunscreen and walked out to the patio where Logan sat looking at the water. Seeing him, she had to stop and catch her breath, as she did every once in a while when the force of what she felt for him really hit her. He looked off-the-charts hot in blue board shorts and nothing else. Those abs she couldn't keep her hands and mouth off of were on full display.

He sat on the patio looking at the water, with a beer in his hand, while he waited for Rory. He'd checked them in while Rory went with Steph to look around. And he got handed two cards - one for Logan Huntzberger and one for Rory Huntzberger. He wasn't sure what happened, because he'd added her to his room, under her name, so she'd be able to charge stuff to the room. When Logan tried to fix it, they thought he wanted her taken off the room. They weren't communicating well, and he finally gave up, figuring they could fix it later. He showed the guys her card, and they laughed, telling him it was only a matter of time. He shoved them out the door. Now he had to tell Rory.

He turned and saw her standing there, in her little blue bikini. She looked a little dazed, and a lot turned on. And he was instantly hard as a rock. He reached for her, and she came to him. "You're so beautiful, Rory." He had her in his arms and was about to pick her up, when Finn ran by telling them to hurry up. Actually, what he said was, "Get a move on, Mr. and Mrs. Huntzberger. It's time to play."

At Rory's confused look, Logan sighed and handed her the room card. "Little mix up at the front desk. Guys got a kick out of how you're registered here," he told her, pointing to her card. She looked down and laughed, "Maybe someday." His heart clenched, and he told her, "Definitely someday." He kissed her and she wrapped herself around him.

Finally, he grabbed her sunscreen and got her covered. She put some on him too, except she spent so much time on his chest and stomach, and got herself and him so turned on, that she ended up pulling the drapes shut and his shorts down and dropping to her knees.

Ten minutes later they made it outside to the beach. Rory had her beach bag. Logan had Rory's hand and a beer. Life was good.

They approached the group and found chairs by Colin and Steph. Logan and Colin immediately took off to play volleyball. Rory, feeling a little self-conscious, laid down on her chair with her coverup on. She ordered a drink when Steph waved a waiter over, and showed him her card. "Ugh. Logan pays again." Steph told her to stop being a baby. "I've never in our whole lives seen Logan so happy. He can buy you some drinks. He can buy you a country for fuck's sake. Let him."

Giving in, she accepted the "Drink for Mrs. Huntzberger" when it arrived. Steph laughed. Rory unsuccessfully tried to get him to call her Rory.

She was just finishing her first drink when Logan and Colin came jogging over. They wanted to go out on the jet skis. Logan pulled Rory up. "Ready for some adventure?"

"Is your goal to throw me off it?"

"Hmm. We'll see. Live a little," he whispered to her. He pulled her coverup up and off her, reached in her bag and put her baseball hat on her head, and grabbed her hand. "Come on, Ace." They'd only gotten a few feet away before the waiter came running after them, "Mrs. Huntzberger! Wait, Mrs. Huntzberger. Your drink." Colin and Steph lost their shit laughing, Logan was trying not to laugh while the guy was there, and everyone around them looked confused as hell. She took it and thanked him, and then shrugged her shoulders. "I tried to tell him. This is going to be a long couple of days."

Recovered, Colin led the way. "Come on, Mrs. Huntzberger. It's this way." Rory flicked him off, and took a sip of her drink. She didn't notice she was the focus of many envious stares, as she walked away.

She loved the jet ski. She rode with Logan, but thought she might like to drive her own eventually. It was so fast and smooth, until he took them over waves and the wakes of boats, which was fun, too. After an hour or so, they ended up in a lagoon-like area. Colin took off in one direction, and Logan went the other. "What are we doing?"

He shut it down and let them float. He turned so he faced her, and kissed her. "You want to make out on a jet ski?"

"Nope." He kissed her again. "I want to have sex on a jet ski. This jet ski."

"Logan." She bit her lip and looked around. "We're out in the open. Anyone could come in here at any time. We don't have any condoms. We ..."

He cut her off. "I'll keep my eyes open, and we'll stop if I see anyone. Your shot is good by now. I did the full physical thing before school started, and I'm clean, and you're the only one I've slept with since then, and I've never had sex with anyone without a condom - ever."

"Logan, I'm not worried about that. I trust you. I know you're right about the shot, but it's hard to get my head around as the child of a teenage pregnancy."

"I'm not saying we stop using condoms altogether, I'm saying we should be good here and there without one. And we're not teenagers. So," he kissed her neck. "What do you say?" He leaned back on the steering panel.

"I have a feeling I'll regret this." She put her hands on his chest, never missing the opportunity to touch his stomach, and unsnapped his bathing suit. He was hard and ready to go. She shifted to get one leg out of her bikini bottom, and he lifted her up and brought her down on him. He groaned once he was inside her, bare. She moved tentatively at first, getting a feel for the gentle floating and movement on the water, not wanting to flip them. Logan was quickly losing it and started lifting her and guiding her, ending it for both of them really fast. She laughed into his chest. Until she saw her bikini bottoms about six feet under on the sandy ground. "Shit." Logan snapped himself back up, and dove in after them. He came up, and talked her into the water too, to rinse off. They swam for a few minutes, and saw a jet ski approach. Colin and Steph dove in too.

Rory hung on Logan's back since he could stand. She was more nervous now that it was over. Wincing, she said, "I just had sex in public. Oh my god. What if someone saw."

Steph splashed her. "We were the only public around, and we weren't watching. Welcome to the dark side," she said wagging her eyebrows.

Logan spun her around. "We could do it again, right here in the water."

"Logan!"

"Go away, Colin, Steph," he told them.

They laughed and swam a decent distance away. "I'm not having sex with people 50 feet away from me. Even if they are your best friends."

"Look over there. What are they doing?"

"I'm not looking over there!"

He turned and looked. "It looks to me, although their backs are to us, that they're busy. Minding their own business." He floated them to slightly more shallow water.

"Logan, you drive me insane." She was weakening, and he knew it.

"You're so easy to corrupt." He put his hand in her bottoms, and bit her lip. He had her writhing in under a minute, and she moaned his name out low and quiet. His breathing hitched as he unsnapped his pants, and pulled her around him. She locked her legs and held on until the end, when he moaned her name - loudly. "Oh my god," is all she could say.

Over the way, Colin and Steph laughed. Colin had told her about Logan constantly losing his shit and his inability to keep it quiet. And there he went again.

When they finally made it back, the group had largely dissipated. There was a sunset sail that night, and everyone must have left to get ready.

An hour later, they were on a giant sailboat, maybe more like a yacht, and passing their lagoon. Rory blushed, and felt Logan hard behind her as they swayed to island music. "We can go back there tomorrow," he told her. "Hmm," was her only response, as they watched the sun set in relative silence.

Finn, Ben, and Seth walked over to them a little bit later. "Poker, Huntz? There's a couple tables set up below. Wanna take some of Finn's money?"

She knew he'd be hesitant to leave her alone with so many strangers, but she told him to go since she was going to look for food anyways. She happily found a buffet and plowed through a plate stacked high. She was surprised when Juliet joined her, with a piece of cake. "Hi. No Kelly tonight?"

Juliet smiled. "She's not in the LDB. And no one ever invites her. I bet that pisses her off, too." Rory laughed. "So what do you think of the LDB? I mean, I read your article, but what do you really think?"

"I think it's fascinating. I like the tradition of it. I like the camaraderie of it. I like most of the people I've met. This trip seems a little over the top, but maybe that's just because I didn't grow up like this. You're a member, or a guest like me?"

"Member. Both my parents, too." Finishing her cake, she offered, "Want to come meet some more people?"

She shrugged, "Sure, why not? I liked your first friend so much," referring to Kelly of the nasty insults. Juliet laughed. She liked Rory. They stopped and got drinks, and Juliet introduced her around. She had fun, until that guy Robert appeared and looked her up and down.

Rory snorted. "Charming."

"Huntzberger didn't already lose interest in you, did he?"

"Charming and friendly. Quite the package. Bet you have to beat the women off with a stick."

"I can show you my stick."

"Are we adding witty to the list, too?"

Juliet laughed, "Why do you have to be such an ass, Robert?"

Hearing a ruckus that probably meant Finn was on the move, and guessing Logan wasn't far behind him, Rory told Robert, "Might be best for you to go now, Robert. Good luck finding someone interested in your stick." She saw them all coming across the deck and smiled.

"Rory, make him give me my money back," whined Finn. She raised an eyebrow at Logan, who came up a second behind Finn. "Finn lost. He's pouting. Hi," he said, kissing her.

The band struck up a bluesy song. "Ooh, a slow one. Let's dance. Finn, dance with Juliet." Juliet looked at her funny, but Rory just smiled.

Logan danced with her. "You're meddling."

"A little. I like her. She's got a brain and a spine. Finn needs to put forth some effort beyond just talking her into bed."

"I bet I can talk you into bed tonight," he whispered in her ear. "I like this dress." He rubbed the soft skin on her back exposed by the halter top. "You're so sexy, Rory."

"Logan. You make my head spin." She put her hand in his hair and kissed him. He loosened his hold on her a little before he got carried away. She made him lose his mind, and not just during sex as Colin and Finn liked to say.

The guys at the poker table had been all over him. He and Rory were still a hot topic. Add in the wife mistake, and it was ratcheted up even more. He heard a fair amount about his hot wife in the blue bikini. A couple of the guys - apparently out of the loop - said maybe they'd make a run at her when Logan was done, and Finn got their attention and shook his head. Catching on, "Wait, you're telling me you're really out of the game, Huntzberger? You and blue bikini - together, like together together?" Logan, used to this by now, just said "Out of the game and definitely together." They gawked. "First, McCrae went out, and now Huntz. Morgan, you're the last man standing there. Your friends, the pussies, have all but abandoned you."

Colin had strolled in, catching the end of it. "Sorry I'm late. We missed the boat because ... well ... Steph's hot. Had to catch a ride out here." And then, "Hey, Harrison, why don't you ask Huntz how many times he's gotten laid since we got here this afternoon. Betting that number beats yours."

That had brought lots of hoots, and made Harrison look at Logan, who just smiled and nodded. "Fuck all of you."

Saturday was the main day of LDB events. They were performing death-defying activities during the day and partying during the night - LDB style.

Logan and Rory woke wrapped around each other, really early - in fact, it was still dark. They changed into bathing suits, grabbed towels, and quietly made their way over to the jet skis. Rory drove her own, and they found a sandy island patch to hop off and watch the sunrise. Logan had her out of her suit and was moving inside her as the sun broke the plane. After, they floated naked in the shallow water as they watched the rest of it. "I can't believe we're here, right now, doing this," she told him.

He smiled at her. "No place I'd rather be." She melted, again.

They rode around for another hour, stopping in their lagoon on the way back to the resort. She laughed as Logan talked her onto his jet ski for another sort of ride, and she found herself on his lap arched back against the steering panel. He was turning her into a sex addict.

They waved to some others as they walked back to their room, carrying their shoes and towels. She wanted to get cleaned up and eat before the activities began. He ordered them breakfast, and they ate on their patio. It was perfect - really very domestic, and led him to bring up something he'd been thinking about.

He, Steph, and the guys had always planned to get a house and live together their senior year, figuring it'd be their last hoorah before real life took over. They'd all wanted to stay on campus until then, because it was convenient and fun, but the plan was to go just slightly off campus next year. He wanted Rory to live with them.

She looked unsure. "How would it work? Would everyone get their own rooms? Would we share? Does Finn want to live with two couples? Can I afford it?"

He smiled, and made his pitch. They'd find a house everyone liked, probably in the next month or two to lock it down, and rent it. He assumed they'd share a room, but she could have her own if she wanted. Finn loved them all, and would still be able to do Finn-like things at the house. And, since she'd be living with him, hopefully in the same room, she wouldn't really need to pay much because he'd already be paying. He saw her eyes spark, and knew she didn't like that. He asked her to hold off on the cost for now, and to tell him what she thought of the rest. She liked the idea. A lot. They ended up together most nights as it was, and it was kind of ridiculous to pretend otherwise. She felt a little guilty about abandoning Paris, but could give her plenty of notice and time to look for a roommate. Logan didn't want to hurt his own cause and tell her Paris could have a year and still have trouble finding someone willing to live with her, so he kept quiet.

He asked tentatively, "So, we can talk to Steph and the guys about it?"

"Tell me about money."

"I don't know, but we'll figure it out. Maybe you pay what the dorm would've cost."

"But what if that's a lot less than my share? I know you'll make up the difference, but I can't just rely on you for everything. We talked about trips and stuff like that – not living expenses. It's not fair to you, and I'd feel guilty about that, too."

He took her hand and pulled her into the bedroom. He grabbed his laptop and pulled her back to the couch. He opened it, and typed for a minute. "I know this all makes you uncomfortable, but I need for you to understand it better because it's always going to be there and between us otherwise. There are others," he turned the screen to face her, "but this is my main account." She hadn't looked down yet. "Come on, Rory. Look." She tore her eyes from his, and looked down. She winced. That was a whole lot of millions. Many, many, many millions. She looked up at him, not sure what to do, and still not talking.

"Rory?"

"What do you want me to do? Or say? Holy shit? Logan, I didn't quite realize the extent of it, but I knew it was there. And yeah, okay, you can support me, a million times over and not even notice, but that's not really the point. The point is, you shouldn't have to."

"I want to. You're mine. You were mine long before you were officially mine. I want to live with you, and I'm the one asking you to change what you would have done next year, so let me do this." Pushing, "And, you shouldn't stress about it, because then you make me stress that maybe money is going to stand in the way of us living together and, well, there's this," waving at the screen, "so we don't have to stress about money." She put her head on his shoulder. "I love you, Rory."

She took a few seconds to collect her thoughts. "Okay. We're putting the money issue to bed today, once and for all. I'll give you my dorm money for next year, and you're on the hook for the rest. I want to live with you, however that happens. For everything else, the trips, the dates, the things, whatever, I'm not going to argue about those either. Within reason, Logan, objective reason, not crazy rich reason." She smiled at him, "Who knows - maybe I'll like being the trophy girlfriend so much that I'll start begging you for stuff, offering sexual favors, that kind of thing."

"Deal. And, Rory, for the record, you're not a trophy anything. I'd give you anything you want. Not because I want sexual favors, because let's be honest, you do that for free because you can't keep your hands to yourself," he smirked at her, "but because I want you to be happy."

"I am happy. You make me happy." She hugged him. "Now that we got that settled in such a reasonable way, I guess let's go do something really stupid and jump off some cliffs."

They were scheduled to cover a series of cliffs, as a group, with guides. Logan got her the information weeks ago, and she'd researched the hell out of it. So much for spontaneous risk taking, she thought, but at least she was doing it.

A few hours later, she made her last jump and was glad it was over. These weren't floating drops like the scaffold jump, but rather jumps with her barreling full speed towards the water. It was terrifying. Logan loved it.


	17. Chapter 17

They had a few hours to kill before they had to get ready for the night's event, so she and Steph headed to the resort shops while the guys went to the pool bar. In a cool boutique, Rory found the prettiest pale blue lacy bra and thong set. It was sweet and sex at the same time, and she thought charging this to Logan's room would be a fun way to cement her acceptance of their deal. And, to be funny, she added Steph's black lingerie, which was far from sweet and all sexy, to her purchase.

Finding the group of guys by the bar, they walked over to them. Rory handed Logan her bag, batted her eyelashes, and told him she'd needed something for tonight so she charged it to the room. He reached in, pulled out the lingerie, and grinned. The guys around him loved it. She handed Colin the other bag, and told Logan, "Oh, and you bought Colin a present, too." Colin pulled out Steph's black lace, "Thanks, man. This really is a gift that keeps giving."

Rory and Steph laughed and headed towards the pool. Back at the bar, the guys told Logan it was money well spent. He laughed. They didn't know the half of it. And they'd have made fun of him if they knew he was mostly thinking about her eyes.

The party that night was another over-the-top display of excessive frivolity. And Rory loved it. It was big, and crazy, and fun. They danced, and ate, and drank. At one point, Logan dragged her into what she thought might be a storage room and locked the door, pushing stuff off the only table in there. He pulled her dress off her and laid her out on the table in her new lingerie. No one noticed when they rejoined the party thirty minutes later.

Sunday after most of the older LDB'ers left for home, the younger crew landed at a popular beach bar. It was exactly how Rory pictured a college spring break location, with a bar and a pool on the beach, and a stage for music and whatever else. Some drinks and loud music, and they were having a good time.

While she was walking back from the bathroom, she saw Logan getting dragged on stage. Oh boy, she thought. He joined two girls and two other guys. She worked her way over to their group near center stage and heard the LDB heckling him. She smiled and waved at him.

The two hosts - a twenty-something guy and girl - came on stage, with microphones, and announced it was time for some fun. The girl started, "We've got five ... hot ... bodies on this stage. We hand-picked them, for your entertainment and ours. We're going to play a game, and there's a prize for the winner - you guys want to see the prize?" When the crowd screamed, they held up a bottle of rum and a t-shirt that said "I scored in Antigua." "Now, today's events require our contestants to have a partner. So, let's get them some partners."

The guy took over. He asked each person their name and asked for volunteers to be their partner. When he got to Logan, the LDB cheered and pointed at Rory. Rory shook her head and started backing up. The hosts liked a reluctant contestant and, before she knew it, Finn was picking Rory up and handing her to Logan on the stage.

"Hi, Ace. Fancy seeing you here."

"How does this shit happen? Shouldn't it be Finn up here?"

"Ideally."

"It's you. If you were less hot, we wouldn't have these problems." He put his arm over her shoulders and waited.

The girl got things started, "Here's the deal. There are six events. We'll track points and crown our winner at the end. You guys ready?" The crowd cheered.

"Okay, first event. It's an easy one. Contestants, you've got 30 seconds to shed eight items of clothing divided however you choose. Each shoe counts as one item. Go!"

Rory looked at Logan. "What? For real?"

Logan told her, "I can do my shirt and flip flops - that's 3. All I have left is this bathing suit, nothing under it."

She rolled her eyes. "Keep your pants on, Huntzberger."

The female contingent of the crowd went nuts when Logan took his shirt off. His board shorts hung low, and he was ripped.

Rory kicked off her flip flops and took off her hat, shirt and shorts, getting them to eight and leaving her standing there in her new black bikini - the skimpiest one Steph had picked out for her.

"Holy shit, Rory." He hadn't seen this one yet and stood in awe. She was covered in a few inches of black fabric held together between her boobs and at her hips by silver metal circles.

"I didn't plan on being on a stage today, in front of hundreds of people. I thought it would be more me and you," she whispered.

Someone yelled, "Mrs. Huntzberger is hot." Logan picked her up bridal style and kissed her, dramatically.

They looked around them on the stage and saw people in various states of undress. Some of the others were in bras and underwear. Rory felt some better.

"Everyone made it through! And look at them all. We've got lots of skin on display up here." The girl host fanned herself.

"Okay. Second event. See those chairs," pointing to the center of the stage. "One of you has to be sitting on the chair at all times, butt down, the other one can't touch the ground at all, and one of you has to lick the bowl that will be placed near the chair clean. Whipped cream...yum!" The crowd was loving this. Most of the contestants looked around confused.

Logan and Rory looked at each other and laughed. There was one way they knew to do it. And they'd practiced, ironically, on the jet ski the last few days.

"No time limit on this one. First team finished wins! Ready, set go!"

Logan sat in the chair, and Rory sat on his lap facing him and locked her legs around his waist. Logan put his hands on her waist, letting Rory arch back. She watched his arms flex as she went backwards, "Good thing you're so strong, Huntzberger. Nice arms." Nervous about her bathing suit top, she crossed her arms over her chest as she went backwards. She scrunched up her face when she saw the whipped cream and licked it upside down.

The guy host came over to them and watched. He talked to the crowd, "I'm going to guess these two have been in a similar position a few times. I'm going to need a cigarette after this." Rory finished, and Logan pulled her up. "Winners! So tell me, did either of you just orgasm?" Logan smirked, and Rory hid her face in Logan's arm. The LDB'ers were losing their shit, jumping around.

They'd finished before some of the other teams even figured out how to sit.

They lost the third event, which required them to maneuver each other through a relatively small hula hoop and Logan was too tall for them to easily do that. They gave up and drank the beers they were supposed to be balancing during the maneuver.

The fourth event started off well. It required strength, and Logan had the physical strength, but his mental strength took him down. All he had to do was hold himself over Rory push up style, move to the left over her, use his mouth to down a shot, move to his right over her to do the same thing, move back to the left to use his mouth to bring the shot to her and tip it in to her mouth, and go back to the right and do the same. They were way ahead until he tipped the first shot to her, and she licked her lips, getting his lips too. He got sidetracked and kissed her, and before anyone knew what happened, she had her hands in his hair and was kissing him back.

They didn't hear the yells from the crowd.

"For fuck's sake, Huntz."

"Dude, finish the game."

"Get a room."

They lost that round, too. The LDB booed them, and they laughed. The guy host told Logan he couldn't really blame him.

The girl took back over. "Okay, we've got three teams with two points each, and two with just one point. Fifth event. This one is my favorite. You have 30 seconds. Show me a hickey. You can make one or show me an existing one. Two people, so up to two points if you each have one. This round could be a game changer! Go!"

All the other teams sprung into action. Logan and Rory just stood there, causing the crowd to go nuts again. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see where this one was going. Thirty seconds in, most of them had failed to produce a single hickey - they'd been laughing too hard to get it done so fast. One team had a pre-existing one.

The girl host walked down to Logan and Rory. "Okay, let's see what you've got."

Rory looked at Logan, who reached for the snap on his bathing suit. "Good thing this isn't a family show," the girl said. She was barely heard over the roar. He unsnapped the button and pulled the flap barely to the side to show a hickey right near that V Rory liked so much. "Okay, that's one point. A very sexy point." She looked to Rory. Rory was hesitant, and Logan wasn't really pumped about showing part of her boob, so he said, "We'll just go with the one." Hearing the chorus of boos, the girl asked, "You sure? You could cement your lead here."

Someone from the LDB yelled, "In omnia paratus!" Logan smiled, but shook his head.

Rory laughed. "Fine." She pulled her bikini top to the side slowly until just the edge of the mark showed. She raised an eyebrow at the girl, "Good enough?" It was.

"Sixth and final event. Beer flip cup. Three cups each. No explanation needed, I hope." Logan pulled Rory into his side and laughed. They finished before the other teams even got through one person.

They were crowned the winners, given their t-shirts, bottle of rum, and plastic trophy, and photographed for posterity.

Rejoining the group, they were told they did the LDB proud. And looked hot doing it, which was apparently equally as important. Rory laughed, chalking it up to yet another mortifying experience. Steph had a shit eating grin on her face. "You took pictures, didn't you?"

"Duh. It's for our monthly newsletter."

Rory panicked, "What? There's a newsletter?" Steph smiled. "Bitch. You scared me!"

They hung out there for the rest of the afternoon. This seemed to be the spot for the single and unattached. Rory and Steph laid out by the pool, intending to people watch, but created a bit of a stir with the guys. Rory told Steph she felt naked. Steph laughed and told her she looked spectacular, and how the guy contingent of the crowd, and particularly the LDB guy contingent, went nuts when she stripped down. She was mostly just glad Logan thought she looked hot.

When the other LDB women joined them, they made quite a scene. They agreed to let the guy host take their picture for the bar wall, already covered in other similar pictures.

A couple hours later, they walked back, with some stragglers they picked up for the single and unattached. They all crashed on their own, much quieter, beach. The resort set up food, a bar, a fire pit, and discreetly stayed out of the way. They watched the sun set and hung around the fire.

Rory sat snuggled up to Logan on one of the loungers, feeling extra relaxed. "You guys are lucky. To have this. It's nice."

"I guess. You might be romanticizing it a little." He said, nodding towards a couple on a chair about ten feet away, covered by a blanket, clearly having sex.

"No, I might be a little drunk, but I see it for what it is. That's a hookup. I got that. And it is weird that it's happening so close to me," she laughed, "but, I don't know, they're still part of the group. And believe me, I'm conditioned to not like stuff like this."

"See if this ruins it for you." Logan pointed to a guy - named Shawn - getting up to talk, who he told her was a senior and the elected leader of the LDB current students. "You guys have elections? There's a period during which this whole group is sober enough to vote? Mind boggling."

There were about 40 students there, almost a full turnout, only a few having passed on the trip for other reasons, and maybe 10 randoms from the bar. It worked because the members knew not to mention much about the group outside of closed events. Usually others just thought they were friends or some sort of club, which they supposed they were.

He gave a funny toast, with lots of references to individual members, including the newly married Mr. and Mrs. Huntzberger, who just performed a simulated sex act on stage. High five, he told Logan. Rory covered her face with her hands. "Still like it?" She laughed. He got the others, too. He congratulated Harrison, who was apparently the guy in the couple having sex near them, for finally getting laid this weekend. And thanked him and the girl for sharing. At the end, she told him, "Nope, didn't ruin it."

This was the last night the LDB had the resort to themselves, so they made the most of it. After that, for the last two nights, it was opened to others. The LDB paid for privacy, and to protect them from some of the stupid shit they did, during their main events.

They ended up by the resort pool. The group was drunker. Wilder. They issued lots of dares and followed through with lots of dares, all on a makeshift stage by the pool. Rory knew she was pretty drunk when she was talking to a few naked people as though nothing was amiss. She and Logan mostly stayed out of the spotlight and watched the others make asses of themselves. They'd already done their part on stage earlier in the day.

Shawn eventually called Logan and Colin up to the pool stage. He'd set up a few shots on a table. "Okay, next we have McCrae and Huntzberger. Now, as we all know, Huntz took one for the team earlier and brought us back a plastic trophy, but McCrae has been pretty quiet. So we're going to play a little game with them. I had a little birdie write down some statements. If you've done the thing in the sentence since you arrived on Antigua, you do nothing. If you haven't done the thing in the sentence since you arrived on Antigua, you do a shot. Kind of reverse Never Have I Ever. Has to have occurred on Antigua - this weekend. Got it?

Rory looked at them up there. They both looked hot and totally unconcerned. Colin stood with his arms crossed, and Logan leaned against one of the arbor poles.

Shawn started the list.

One. Peed outside. Neither drank.

Two. Had sex outside. Neither drank.

Three. Received oral sex. Neither drank.

Four. Given oral sex. Neither drank.

Five. Told someone you love them during sex. Neither drank.

Six. Told someone you love them not during sex. Neither drank.

Seven. 69. Neither drank.

Eight. Skinny dipped. Neither drank.

Nine. Stolen something. Neither drank.

Ten. Had sex at one of the events yesterday. Neither drank.

The game was over, and neither had done anything. Everyone was laughing pretty hard at that point. Logan and Colin looked smug. Logan pushed off the wall. "Good game, Shawn."

Colin told him maybe they should try it again with other people since the set up was untouched. "Maybe get Harrison. He's pretty lame."

Shawn laughed. "What the hell. Okay. Harrison, you're up." Harrison drank all but one.

When Logan reached Rory, she asked "What did you steal?"

"Those neon condoms Ben was playing with at the bar. They were from a machine that was broke. Think I should go back and give them $5? To avoid jail time?"

The last two days sped by. Rory was tan and relaxed and so happy when they got back on the plane to Connecticut Wednesday morning.

On the flight back, Steph raised winter break. They'd been going out west to ski the last couple years, after Christmas. They wanted to go again. Logan looked at Rory, and she nodded. "But just FYI, I've never skied. It looks hard. And dangerous. And I bet you four are rockstar skiers."

Logan told her they'd get her a cute ski outfit so she looked good rolling down the slope. Something bright so they'd see her as they passed her. She flicked him off and wondered how bad it hurt to fall. Coordination wasn't her strong suit.

Lorelai was picking Rory up from the airport, and Logan was going back to Yale for the night with the others. Then, Logan was coming to Stars Hollow in the morning for Thanksgiving and the rest were all going to their parents' houses for the day.

Lorelai hugged Rory when they landed and said hi to everyone else before they took off. Logan gave her one hell of a kiss goodbye and told her he'd see her tomorrow.

Rory told Lorelai about the trip, purposely toning it down so it sounded more sedate. Lorelai gave her a look. "What?" Rory asked.

"Tell me more. And this time, let's go for the real story."

Rory laughed. "What happens in Antigua, stays in Antigua." And then, "Actually, Steph made a short video on the plane. You can watch when we get home, but you can't judge. And you can't share it, it being of a secret society and all."

The video was amazing. Most of the women had texted Steph their pictures, and it had hundreds of pictures taken from the trip, all set to music. There were pictures of the island, the beach, the events, both official and unofficial, and the people. Logan and Rory were in a lot of them.

Lorelai watched it and smiled. Rory was out of her shell and had found her place. She raised her eyebrow at the whipped cream stage picture, where she was arched back while Logan held her, and Rory just laughed. "We won." Lorelai rolled her eyes, "I'm sure."


	18. Chapter 18

They ate dinner at Luke's and spent the night watching movies. Rory missed being with Logan, but she was happy to be able to visit with her mom. She felt the void more when she got into her empty bed.

She sent him a text.

"I'm going to bed. I love you."

"My bed feels empty. I love you too, Ace."

Logan arrived in time for the first of three meals. He brought Lorelai flowers. He brought Sookie flowers. He brought Luke whiskey. And he brought Emily more flowers. They ate, and ate, and ate.

Emily watched Rory and Logan with an eagle eye. She liked what she saw. She saw love.

They talked about school and finals. Emily was especially interested in their December plans because she wanted to show them off. She was having a Christmas party no matter what Richard said, and she would start planning it as soon as everyone left that night.

After Rory and Logan left, Lorelai told Emily. "I can actually see the wheels spinning in your head, Mom."

"Don't be ridiculous, Lorelai."

"Whatever you're planning, just keep in mind that Rory doesn't like to be the center of attention. And, for all that's holy, don't do anything to mess her and Logan up."

"They're in love, Lorelai. I'm not going to mess them up, as you so quaintly put it."

Logan drove them back to Yale. They stopped at Rory's dorm to switch out clothes, since her Antigua wardrobe didn't work in the twenty-degree weather.

Finn, Colin, and Steph had just gotten back, and were pouring drinks after their harrowing day with their families when Logan and Rory walked in. Logan told them he didn't care what had happened to them, it couldn't beat having to eat three Thanksgiving meals. Rory rolled her eyes. She was pleasantly full.

They hung out and talked. Surprisingly, Steph was able to line up appointments to see a few houses tomorrow. They were all going to go. When Rory's phone beeped, she looked down and saw a text from her mom. "Snow!"

Rory jumped up and ran to the window. Snow! "Oh my god. First snow. Let's go!" They looked at her like she was crazy. "My mom and I always go outside at first snow - no matter what time. It's our thing. Well, one of them. She's not here, so come with me. Come on!"

She texted her mom back while they got their coats. "Snow! Going out now. Miss you."

They went out and sat in the grass. They watched Rory put her face to the sky and smiled. Weird, but they could live with it.

The next day they walked across campus to meet the realtor. They figured they'd walk it because they'd be walking it every day, and the house had to be close enough. The first one was too small. They'd kill each other in a week. The second one was too far. The guys didn't have much incentive to go to class as it was; that much distance would lessen class attendance. The third and final one was perfect and only a half block off campus. It had two stories, four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a family room with - fortunately - a giant bar, and a stone-enclosed patio out back. They only needed three bedrooms so they could make the fourth an office for school stuff. Rory liked that. Finn liked that it was a good party house. A professor and his family currently lived in it, but they'd be out in July. They told the realtor they'd take it. These guys didn't mess around, Rory thought.

They spent the beginning of December finishing up classes and studying for exams. This was the time Colin went to the library. Finn still wasn't willing to risk the burn.

Rory told Paris about her plan to live with Logan next year. It didn't go well at first, but Paris got over it. She and Doyle were still going strong, so she was slightly less judgmental about Rory and Logan than she might have otherwise been.

Rory studied more than the rest of them. She studied until she fell asleep some nights. Logan picked her up and carried her to bed those nights. Finally, a week before Christmas, they were all done.

They went to the Pub that night to celebrate. Logan sat at the back table with Colin and Finn and watched Rory dance with Steph and Paris. He smiled, thinking how four months ago he'd sat here and watched her dance. Before they were them. Feeling sentimental, he got up and went to her.

Later that night, as they were walking back to his room, she asked him what was up. He'd gotten quiet half way through the night. He smiled and told her. And he told her he loved her more every day. She liked mushy Logan.

Rory had struggled to come up with a schedule for the time until they left for Colorado. She wanted to spend time with her mom, but she wasn't willing to leave Logan. It was weird for him to stay at their house, and weirder for him or them to stay at the inn for an extended time. Logan kept telling her to relax, and he'd stay or go and do whatever she wanted him to do, trying to eliminate her stress. Ultimately, she decided they'd stay at Yale for a couple of days, get some shopping done, and then they'd attend her grandparents' Christmas party. The next day, they'd go to Stars Hollow for a few days and, with Lorelai's permission, stay at their house. They'd go to the McCrae house for Christmas Eve, because Lorelai was hosting a dinner at the inn that night, and back to Stars Hollow for the night and Christmas day. Rory had invited Logan's grandfather to her grandparents' house for Christmas dinner, and he'd accepted. They'd return to Yale that night and leave the following day for Colorado. She felt like she'd coordinated a military offensive.

Their time alone at Yale was their Christmas together, and they both loved it. It was unhurried and relaxed. They shopped and ate and drank and spent a lot of time in bed. In fact, in bed was where Logan gave her a few of her Christmas presents one night. She looked up at him in surprise. "A few days early, aren't you, Huntzberger?"

"Maybe. You'll get more on Christmas. You can open these now, without an audience."

She looked at him. "I wouldn't want to open these in front of my mom?"

He laughed. "Probably not. But you're both so odd, who knows. Come on, open them."

She went for the big box first and grinned when she unwrapped a familiar pink box. She peeked inside and saw it was jam packed with matching sets of lingerie. She picked through it all and stared at him. "How long were you in the store? How did I miss you being gone for days?"

"You studied a lot. Colin and I spent a few hours there one afternoon." Rory smiled, picturing the reactions those two got. She bet it was a red letter day for the store.

She leaned over to kiss him. "Thank you. I love all of it."

"Keep going."

She grabbed another and unwrapped a frame box. She bit her lip. "Is this going to be another Steph picture?" He just waved his hand to get her to keep going. She pulled out a framed stylized picture of them on the stage in Antigua when he picked her up bridal style at the beginning, right after they'd stripped down to their bathing suits. It was just them in black and white. She touched the picture. "How can she make something that was so crazy look so beautiful?" She looked at him and smiled. "You sure like to carry me."

"I do." He put it on the nightstand. "One more."

She picked up the smaller box. "You bought me jewelry."

"You won't know until you open it."

She stuck her tongue out at him. She unwrapped her last present and opened the box to find diamond earrings. "Oh my god," she said without looking up at him. She finally tore her eyes away from them to look at Logan. "Logan, these are too much. Remember our agreement? Objective reason. Not crazy rich reason. I'm no expert, but these seem to fall into the second category."

He smirked at her. "It's Christmas. Normal rules don't apply. And, you should be glad Steph came with me to get them then. She talked me down a size, saying you would be uncomfortable otherwise."

She gaped at him. "There were bigger ones? How is that possible? Logan, really, I don't know what to do here."

"Wear them."

She bit her lip again. "They're insured?" He nodded.

"You're insane." She leaned over and kissed him, leaving her hand on his cheek. "Thank you."

When it came time to go to the Gilmore party the next night, they got dressed up and did their duty. Her mom and grandma zeroed in on her earrings within seconds of their arrival, as she knew they would. How could they not, she thought, when people on the moon could probably see the sparks shooting off them. They talked, and danced, and socialized. They charmed everyone, and Emily was thrilled. A few hours later, Lorelai and Rory finally found a few minutes to sit out on the patio catching up before they all got ready to go. "So, things are good with Logan, huh?"

Rory smiled. "Yeah. Things are good."

"Those are some earrings."

She laughed. "They are. He's never had a girlfriend. I think he's a little confused about what boyfriends give their girlfriends for their first Christmas together. I'm pretty sure I have a year of Yale tuition in my ears."

"At least, honey."

"Well, whatever. I love him, mom. He loves me. And I'm sure Hartford's finest jewelry store loves us both."

"Yeah. And, after the performance you and Logan put in tonight, I'm pretty sure you don't have to give Emily any gifts for the next decade. Her glow will last at least that long. Good job."

They laughed and hugged before going to find Logan and Luke. To Rory's great joy, Lorelai and Luke had gone on a few dates and were testing the waters. She was so excited for them.

Well aware that this was their last night of freedom for a few nights, because they'd be staying in Rory's childhood room and Logan couldn't keep quiet, they stayed up most of the night. They slept in late, lazed around, and got to Stars Hollow that afternoon. Lorelai looked on in wide-eyed amazement as they unloaded Logan's SUV.

"You kids sure you brought enough gifts? Who the hell are all these for?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "So, it turns out Logan could give Emily a run for her money at shopping. He's a shopping ninja. Salespeople fawn all over him. It's embarrassing."

Lorelai looked at Logan. "Is it because you're rich or hot?" He just laughed and shook his head.

Rory answered, "Both, probably. They see him, then they see the black card, and bam - it's all over. In any event, the result is all of this."

Logan stepped in. "Thanks for having us, Lorelai. I know this is where Rory wanted to be for Christmas."

Lorelai looked between them with a perplexed look. "You two are a weird combo. Okay, come on in. I'm glad you're both here. Hope you came hungry for movie night!"

Lorelai and Rory introduced Logan to movie night. Even after all this time, he was still amazed at the amount of food the Gilmore girls put away. The combo of pizza and Chinese was foul, and combined with the Willy Wonka stash of candy, it was nauseating. He liked hanging out with them, though, and admired their focus.

They slept in Rory's bed, pretty much on top of each other because it was so small. They were exhausted, so it was fine.

The next day they helped with the Christmas festivities in the town square, and Rory got to visit everyone. Logan had been around Stars Hollow enough now that some people greeted him by name, and he found that funny and oddly comforting. They sat in on some of Hep Alien's band practice. They ate at Luke's, and went to Sookie's for dinner, along with half the town.

Itching to get his hands on Rory that night, he promised her he'd be quiet as they got ready for bed. She doubted him, but flipped the lights off and climbed in next to him. "So yes?"

"Yes, until you make a sound. Then no. It's all on you."

He groaned. "Okay. I can do it." She laughed silently at how serious he was.

She hopped back up and quickly shed her long-sleeved shirt and pajama pants and crawled up to get rid of his boxers. "So far so good, Huntzberger."

She kissed down his chest before he flipped her onto her back. "This is only going to work if my mouth is busy." He took over, and his mouth didn't stop for a long, long time, leaving Rory biting down on her sheet. After, he leaned over and whispered, "I win."

The next day they went to Hartford to hang out with Colin and Steph at Colin's parents' house. Colin and Steph looked wide-eyed and were clearly ready to be done with family time. Finn popped in a little while after, whispering to them that he had escaped his own hell to join theirs. They visited with Colin's parents for a while. Rory tried to take some of the pressure off Colin and Steph and talked a lot. Once they escaped to the pool house, Colin told them the issue. McCraes were lawyers. It was time to prepare for law school. Whether he wanted to or not. Colin had carefully avoided the subject for years – out of sight, out of mind. He banged his head on the table. "I don't want to spend three more years in school."

They all looked at him. He went on. "Seriously. What do I do with that? What's Steph supposed to do with that?"

Steph smiled. "I could take pictures of you studying. Make them into a book. Sell it. Hot Law Student."

"You're going to sit at Yale for three extra years and wait for me?"

She got up and walked over to him to sit in his lap. "Depends. Do you want to be a lawyer? If you do and your objection is just to the time it'll take, sure. I'll take more classes, or get a job, or, whatever. We'll deal. If you don't and it's a waste of time, then probably not. We'll deal with that, too."

He hugged her.

Rory, trying to lighten the mood, told him, "I love Yale and New Haven. Seems like a great place to spend a few extra years. Can I stay and take pictures of you, too?"

They all laughed.

Logan slapped Colin on the back. "So law school, dude. We all knew this was coming. It's maybe just a little earlier than we expected. But I have to say, I can see it. It fits. Congratulations."

"And," said Finn, "you can represent us in the event any of us are wrongfully accused of bad acts."

Colin stared at him. "So, I'll never get to represent you then, if you have to be wrongfully accused. Pretty sure you've done everything you've been arrested for."

"Duh." Finn rolled his eyes.

They made it through Christmas Eve dinner with the McCraes without further damage. On the way back to Stars Hollow, Rory looked at Logan. "So that was a little different from our dinner last night. No one at the McCraes threw a carrot across the table or sang Desperado between the salad and main courses."

Logan grinned at her. "Variety is the spice of life."

She snorted. "You're in for a lot of variety in your life then."

They beat Lorelai back to the house. Appreciating the silence, they sat on the couch in the dark watching the twinkly lights on the Christmas tree. She turned to him. "You know what I just realized?" When he raised an eyebrow, she told him, "We aren't study partners anymore."

He pulled her closer to him. "I stopped thinking of you as my study partner months ago."

"What if one of us hadn't signed up for that class? What if there was a Grant or a Harrison in our class, or some other name that fell alphabetically between Gilmore and Huntzberger?"

"We did, and there wasn't."

She looked at him, wrinkling her nose at him. "I don't like the thought of it. It makes my stomach hurt."

He leaned over to kiss her forehead. "Ace. We're good. We're here. Right where we're supposed to be."

"I never expected this. I never expected you. I love you, Logan."

"I never expected this or you, but you are the best thing that ever happened to me. I love you, Rory."

*** One more chapter to go!***


	19. Chapter 19

END OF SPRING SEMESTER

Rory looked around her dorm room at all the stacked boxes. She already turned in her last YDN articles and finished her exams, and now she had to finish getting her stuff boxed up to go into storage with everyone else's stuff until August when they were moving into their house. Paris had already moved hers into her new apartment with Doyle. Rory gave them the couch as a parting gift.

She looked up at the knock on her open door and smiled at Logan and Finn. "Truck's here. You ready?" She grimaced, looking at her watch. "I'm running behind. I've got so much junk. Sorry! But you guys can start on this stuff and I'll try to be done by the time you are." Looking closer at them, they looked beat. They'd already done their stuff and Steph's. "You guys want to take a break?"

Logan smiled. "Nope. We just grabbed food fast. We're good to go. It's a good workout. Colin will be here in 10 minutes." She rolled her eyes. Workout, her ass. But, clearly, whatever Logan thought was a workout, was working for him.

An hour later, they were done and she locked up her dorm for the last time.

She and Logan were going to her mom's for a few days before their summer jobs kicked in. She had watched Logan negotiate it with his dad and still couldn't believe it worked. But it had, and after a few weeks of back and forth, Mitchum agreed that they could write a He Said/She Said column a couple times a week, which would be run in some of the HPG papers, and that they could do it from the Huntzbergers' house on Antigua. They were going back to Antigua for two months! Colin, Steph, and Finn were going to be based out of the Antigua house, too, for the summer, but they all had other plans that would take them away for periods of time. It was the perfect set up.

END OF SUMMER BREAK

Rory sat on the back patio staring at the ocean while Logan finished up a call. She loved this house. She loved this beach. She loved this island. They had the best summer here. Logan and Rory had spent the summer holding down the fort, while their friends and family came and went. She smiled picturing her mom and Luke walking down the beach every night at sunset the week they'd come. Their column, published under pseudonyms, was initially well received and then deemed a hit by the third week. They were smart, but not arrogant, witty, but not biting – said the critics. It'd been picked up by way more of the HPG papers than they expected, and there was apparently a fair amount of interest in their real identities. Mitchum offered to have them keep it going during the school year, if they thought they could handle it. They were going to do it. Rory loved it, and the money would go a long way towards covering more of her living expenses. She was excited to be going back to Yale and moving into their new house for her junior year and Logan's senior year, but would miss their quiet life here. This, like Stars Hollow and New Haven, was now one of her places. She knew, if his dad ever decided to sell this house, Logan would buy it so they didn't lose it.

She listened to him wrapping up his call and smiled. Logan had taken an interest in the logistics and business side of it all. Mitchum, not one to pass up an opportunity, roped Logan into some meetings remotely. So far, he was liking it.

"Hey, you ready to walk?" She looked at him standing in the doorway. He was so relaxed and happy, and it made him hotter if that was even possible. He was tanner, blonder, and even more ripped from all of his early morning beach exercising.

"Yep. One of our last sunsets here this summer."

He took her hand. "There'll be more."

They strolled down the beach for a while before heading back to sit in their adirondack chairs by the water to watch the sunset like they did most nights.

"Hey Rory."

She looked over at him.

"I love you." Her heart clenched, remembering the first time he said it like that on his 21st birthday.

"Hey Logan." She smiled at him. "I love you, too."

"Tried and true," he said. "This has been the best year of my life, being with you. I can see our life together, Rory. I can see us getting married next summer after I graduate and living somewhere in New Haven or Hartford or in between, so I can work and you can finish school. And then I can see us going wherever and doing whatever we want to do after that. And I want that life together. Because I love you, and I need you. So, Rory," he dropped to a knee and pulled a box out of his pocket, "will you marry me? Be my wife?"

She couldn't catch her breath. She looked at him in front of her and saw everything she'd ever wanted. She nodded, trying to find her voice. "Yes. Yes!"

He slid the ring on her finger and picked her up to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life.

Hearing familiar hoots and hollers, they looked up on their balcony and saw Finn, Colin, and Steph. Steph was diligently trying to take pictures through her tears. Their friends were engaged, and it was time to celebrate.

Later that night, Rory sent her mom the video Finn had taken, and said "Surprise!"

Lorelai wrote back, "Duh, that boy loves you. Congrats, honey!"

Rory looked at her phone. And then at Logan. "She doesn't sound surprised."

He smiled. "I may have talked to her when they were here. Permission and blessing and all that."

"And she kept it a secret for two weeks?"

"Looks like it. Maybe she thought I'd change my mind."

She smacked him.

END OF FALL SEMESTER

She sat on the bathroom floor with Steph staring at the stick with the two pink lines. This really wasn't how Rory thought she'd be spending the first day of winter break, but life happens. They'd been in the house for almost five months, and they all loved it. Colin and Steph and Rory and Logan were rocking along, and Finn! Finn had been dating Juliet for almost two months. It was a miracle, and they all watched with unconcealed fascination. Between that, Colin's law school admission at Yale, and the planning of the Gilmore-Huntzberger wedding, not to mention the YDN and their column and school, it had been a busy semester. Rory had turned 21. They'd gone on the LDB fall break trip again, where more mortifying moments were memorialized in video. And Steph was pregnant. Yep, heck of a semester, Rory thought.

"Rory. What am I going to do? What do I tell Colin? He's starting law school next year. He's going to be living in a law library, and I'm going to have a baby." She'd only just realized that afternoon she was late, and she and Rory walked to the drugstore for a pregnancy test. They were the only ones home, although they wouldn't be for long.

"It takes two to tango, Steph. He knows that. And you guys are 22, about to graduate college – from Yale! You're two responsible adults. You've got this. We're here to help. I'm here at least another year no matter what. A baby! We need a baby."

Steph leaned her head on Rory's shoulder and smiled. That's how the guys found them a few minutes later. All three stared at them and the stick Steph held.

Colin tilted his head, "Steph?"

She looked up at him. "This isn't what I was planning to get you for Christmas, but I don't think it's something I can return." He processed fast. "Really?" She nodded. He bent down and hugged her. The rest of them backed out quietly and left them alone, smiling.

Finn had champagne ready when they emerged and some sparkling water for Steph. They toasted the new McCrae on the way.

Colin went to the Christmas tree in the corner and pulled out a box. He unwrapped it, got down on one knee, and asked Steph to marry him. She sobbed and told him yes. When she pulled herself together, she looked at him. "Smart guy. You're thinking now we don't have the extra week or two until Christmas to waste. We gotta get planning if I'm not going to look like a whale walking down the aisle." He smiled – he was no dummy. They both knew the Vanderbilt name would clear any venue they wanted at the drop of a hat. They were good.

Rory was so happy she thought she might burst. "You're going to look beautiful at your wedding. It's my wedding where you'll look like a whale. But you're going to walk your pregnant ass down that aisle no matter what you look like." Steph laughed.

Logan played with Rory's ring while they sat on the couch listening to their friends talk. She looked up at him and smiled. "Our first baby," he said.

"Yep. Can you believe this? We're all so grown up! Weddings and babies. And we," she said pointing between her and him, "get a practice baby."

He hugged her and laughed. "Yeah, let's mess up Colin's baby first before we have our own. Good plan, Ace."

END OF SPRING SEMESTER

Rory bounced in her seat at Logan's graduation so much that Lorelai put her hand on her leg and told her to stop. She was driving everyone nuts. They had quite the group because, of course, it was also Finn, Colin, and Steph's graduation too. These families had been together a lot in the last few months and, while Lorelai liked the kids, she was less than impressed with the parents. They had come together to rent out the Pub for one giant graduation party, so that was something.

Logan had kicked ass his last year at Yale. Even Mitchum was impressed. So impressed that he didn't put up any fight when Logan told him he was staying in New Haven this coming year while Rory finished school and would work for HPG remotely. He and Rory would continue their column, which had gained a wider audience and was now nationally recognized. Their identities were still secret, but there were rumors suggesting it was them. They were going to out themselves after their wedding in two weeks and roll with it. HPG and Mitchum agreed they could do it.

Colin bought the New Haven house not long after he and Steph got married. It would be their home base for the next three years, and a good place for them and their baby. And, apparently, for Logan and Rory. They were staying on for the next year, to help their friends. Not that it was a hardship because they loved the house and were very excited about the baby. But four was better than two, and gave them a better shot at surviving their first baby. Finn and Juliet were still together and wanted to give cohabitation a try, so they had found a small townhouse less than a two-minute walk away from the house. Juliet was staying on to get her master's degree, and Finn would tackle the financial world from his laptop at the bar they'd build. Besides, he wasn't missing his shot with their first baby either.

Finally, they were in the H's! Lorelai smiled at Rory's excitement. "You did good, kid. Hit the jackpot with your guy, your friends, your life. Never should have doubted you."

"Mom, you're going to make me cry. I've been doing so well, too! Logan bet me $20 I'd cry when his name was called. It doesn't count if I'm crying before! Here he goes!"

She snapped his picture as he took his diploma and shook the Dean's hand. She watched him walk across and wiped away her tears. Damn it.

END OF SUMMER BREAK

Rory sat in the family room rocking Andrew McCrae, who made his appearance the week before. His arrival had been swift and scary. Logan had been the only one home with Steph when her water broke and her labor kicked in fast. He'd driven her to the hospital like a madman while Steph yelled at Colin on the phone. He was terrified he'd have to stay with Steph if Colin didn't make it in time, and he absolutely would have if she needed him, but he nearly wept when Colin came jogging into the room in time for the birth. Logan very happily went to the waiting room to wait for Rory, Finn, Juliet, and baby McCrae. They were all still working on getting into a groove with him home now, before Colin and Rory started classes in a few days, but they were getting there, she thought. Steph was a natural mommy.

She and Logan had been married for a little over two months. Rory Huntzberger. Officially now – she'd long been known as Mrs. Huntzberger in the LDB. They'd had a co-ed bachelor / bachelorette party, and all the LDB guys had worn shirts that said "Mrs. Huntzberger is hot!" They got all their stupid shit out of their systems at that party and reeled it in for the rehearsal dinner and wedding, so no one would have a conniption. It was all nice and proper. Logan and Rory let the families knock themselves out with the rehearsal dinner, but held firm on planning the actual wedding. It could be big, and they could help, but it would be Rory's way. And it was.

She loved married life, although true be told, they'd lived as though they were married for the last few years. They still couldn't keep their hands off each other, Logan still couldn't stay quiet half the time, and she still slept mostly on top of him. They'd spent a month alone at the house in Antigua on their honeymoon, and it had been perfect. They kept up with their column, which was pretty easy a year into it. Just as they'd learned quickly to mesh their writing styles as study partners, they'd learned quickly to play off each other to make their bantering and individual styles more interesting. They'd announced in the column immediately following their wedding that they'd gotten married and, while they didn't give their names, it confirmed the rumors and ginned up a lot of publicity. It all went down onto paper fast, leaving them time for lots of other honeymoon activities. They made a good team. Sunned and relaxed, they'd come home well in time for baby McCrae's arrival, giving Logan a chance to get set up for HPG and Rory a chance to get organized for her last year of school and her upcoming year as YDN editor.

Logan watched his wife rock the baby from the doorway. Her eyes were closed as she rubbed his back. "It's a good look for you, Ace."

She opened her eyes and smiled at him. "Yeah, we're going to need one of these."

THE END


End file.
